Terms of Service

1. Agreement to Terms

By accessing or using SheetsData ("the Service"), operated by SheetsData (Pty) Ltd (Registration No. [pending]) ("we", "us", "our", "the Company"), you ("you", "the User", "Customer") agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and SheetsData (Pty) Ltd. If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent and warrant that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms, and "you" refers to both you individually and the organization.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years of age, or the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction, to use the Service. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you meet this requirement. If you are under 18, you may not create an account or use the Service.

You further represent that you are not (a) located in, or a resident of, any country subject to comprehensive trade sanctions, or (b) listed on any government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

3. Description of Service

SheetsData provides an API service (via the Model Context Protocol and HTTP API) that allows AI agents and software tools to search for electronic components, retrieve component specifications, and access structured data extracted from publicly available manufacturer datasheets.

The Service uses automated tools, including artificial intelligence and machine learning models, to extract, structure, and summarize technical data from manufacturer documentation. The outputs of these automated processes are not reviewed, verified, or endorsed by qualified engineers or any human reviewers before being served to users.

The Service is a research and convenience tool only. It is not a substitute for reading the original manufacturer datasheet, consulting a qualified engineer, or performing your own due diligence.

4. Accounts and API Keys

To use paid features, you must create an account and generate an API key. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your API keys and for all usage under your account. You must notify us immediately at support@sheetsdata.com of any unauthorized use.

You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and to keep your account information updated. You may not create multiple accounts to circumvent rate limits, billing, or access restrictions.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or engage in abusive behavior, with or without prior notice.

API keys are confidential credentials. You must not share, publish, embed in client-side code, or commit API keys to public repositories. You are solely responsible for all charges incurred through use of your API key, whether authorized by you or not. If you believe your API key has been compromised, you must revoke it immediately through the dashboard and contact us.

5. Billing and Payments

SheetsData uses a prepaid balance model. You add funds to your account balance and each API call deducts from your balance based on the published per-call pricing. Certain tools (search, basic lookups) are free.

• Prepaid credits are non-refundable except where required by applicable law (including the South African Consumer Protection Act, No. 68 of 2008).
• We reserve the right to change pricing with 30 days notice via email or dashboard notification. Your continued use of the Service after the notice period constitutes acceptance of the new pricing.
• If your balance reaches zero, paid API calls will be rejected until you top up.
• Auto-recharge, if enabled, will charge your payment method automatically when your balance drops below your configured threshold. You may disable auto-recharge at any time through the dashboard.
• All prices are in US Dollars (USD) unless otherwise indicated. You are responsible for any currency conversion fees charged by your bank or payment provider.
• Payments are processed by Paystack, a PCI-DSS compliant payment processor. We do not store credit card numbers on our servers.
• We may offer promotional credits from time to time. Promotional credits expire as specified and cannot be exchanged for cash.

Disputed charges: If you believe you have been incorrectly charged, you must notify us within 30 days of the charge at billing@sheetsdata.com. We will investigate and, if the charge was in error, issue a credit to your account balance.

6. Data Accuracy Disclaimer

THE DATA PROVIDED BY SHEETSDATA IS FOR INFORMATIONAL AND RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE ENGINEERING ADVICE, PROFESSIONAL ADVICE, OR A RECOMMENDATION OF ANY KIND.

Component specifications, electrical characteristics, pinouts, package dimensions, thermal ratings, absolute maximum ratings, and other technical data are extracted from publicly available manufacturer datasheets using automated tools including AI/machine learning. This data may contain errors, omissions, inaccuracies, or be out of date. Specific known risk areas include but are not limited to:

• Incorrect extraction of values from tables, charts, or graphs
• Confusion between typical, minimum, and maximum values for electrical parameters
• Misidentification of pin numbers, pin functions, or pin mappings
• Incorrect unit conversions or missing unit qualifiers
• Outdated information from superseded datasheet revisions
• AI-generated summaries that omit critical qualifying conditions, footnotes, or derating curves
• Errors in absolute maximum ratings that could lead to component damage or safety hazards
• Conflation of data from different variants, packages, or temperature grades of a component
• Missing or incorrect information about lead-free/RoHS compliance, moisture sensitivity, or ESD ratings

You must always verify ALL specifications against the official manufacturer datasheet before making any design, purchasing, manufacturing, or safety-related decisions. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, correctness, timeliness, or fitness for any purpose of any data provided through the Service.

AI-generated summaries and extracted data are produced by automated systems and have not been verified by human engineers. They should be treated as a starting point for research, not as authoritative technical documentation.

We expressly disclaim any responsibility for decisions made, designs created, products manufactured, or actions taken based on data obtained from the Service.

7. No Professional Advice

The Service does not provide engineering, legal, financial, safety, compliance, or any other form of professional advice. Nothing in the data, summaries, comparisons, or design-fit checks provided by the Service should be construed as a professional recommendation or certification.

You are solely responsible for engaging qualified professionals (including but not limited to licensed engineers, safety consultants, and compliance experts) for any decisions that could affect safety, health, regulatory compliance, or significant financial outcomes.

8. Prohibited Uses

You agree not to use the Service for:

• Safety-critical applications where incorrect component data could cause injury, death, or significant property damage (including but not limited to medical devices, life support systems, weapons systems, nuclear facilities, aviation systems, automotive safety systems, or industrial safety controls) without independent verification of ALL specifications by qualified engineers using original manufacturer documentation.
• Systematic scraping, bulk downloading, mirroring, or redistribution of data obtained through the Service, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
• Building a competing product or service using data obtained from the Service.
• Reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, or attempting to extract source code, algorithms, or data models from the Service.
• Circumventing, disabling, or interfering with rate limits, billing, authentication, or access controls.
• Using automated tools (bots, scripts, crawlers) to access the Service in a manner that exceeds reasonable usage patterns or degrades service for other users.
• Sharing, reselling, sublicensing, or redistributing your API key or account access to third parties.
• Impersonating any person or entity, or falsely stating or misrepresenting your affiliation with a person or entity.
• Using the Service to generate counterfeit, fraudulent, or misleading component documentation or certifications.
• Any activity that violates applicable laws, regulations, or third-party rights, including intellectual property rights, export control laws, and trade sanctions.

We reserve the right to determine, in our sole discretion, whether your use violates these restrictions. Violation may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account without notice or refund.

9. Fair Use and Rate Limits

The Service is subject to rate limits and fair use policies as published on our pricing page and documentation. We reserve the right to throttle, suspend, or restrict access to accounts that exhibit usage patterns that we reasonably determine to be abusive, excessive, or disruptive to the Service or other users.

Free-tier usage is provided as a courtesy and may be modified, limited, or discontinued at any time without notice.

10. Intellectual Property

The SheetsData platform, API, website, extraction technology, data models, algorithms, documentation, trademarks, logos, and all associated intellectual property are owned by SheetsData (Pty) Ltd and are protected by applicable intellectual property laws. You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service in accordance with these Terms. This license does not grant you any ownership of or rights in any intellectual property of SheetsData or any third party.

You may not use our name, logo, or trademarks without our prior written consent.

11. Third-Party Content and Copyright

Nature of the Service: SheetsData is an automated intermediary service that processes publicly available electronic component documentation using machine learning and AI tools. The Service operates as follows:

• Users or automated systems submit part numbers or search queries to the Service.
• The Service locates publicly available datasheet URLs from component distributor APIs and manufacturer websites.
• Automated extraction tools process these documents to produce structured, machine-readable data (specifications, pin tables, ratings) and AI-generated summaries.
• No human reviews, selects, curates, or edits the content before, during, or after extraction. The entire process is fully automated.

Third-party ownership: Component datasheets, technical documentation, images, diagrams, and other materials processed by the Service are and remain the intellectual property of their respective owners (typically semiconductor manufacturers). SheetsData does not claim any ownership of, nor any copyright in, any third-party content processed through the Service.

Automated processing without knowledge: Because the Service processes documents automatically and at scale without human review, SheetsData has no actual knowledge of the specific contents, copyright status, licensing terms, or restrictions applicable to any individual document processed through the Service. We do not select which documents to process — this is driven entirely by user queries and publicly available distributor catalog data.

Transformative output: The outputs of the Service (structured data tables, extracted specifications, AI-generated summaries, and machine-readable metadata) are the result of substantial automated transformation. They are not verbatim copies of source documents. Nevertheless, extracted content may include or reflect elements of the original works, and we make no representation that such output is free of third-party intellectual property rights.

No endorsement or authorization: The availability of extracted data for a particular component through the Service does not imply that the manufacturer has authorized, endorsed, or licensed such extraction. It also does not imply that SheetsData has reviewed or verified the copyright status of the source document.

Original PDFs not hosted: SheetsData does not publicly host, distribute, or make available the original PDF datasheet documents. PDFs are temporarily processed for extraction purposes and stored in private infrastructure solely to serve cached extraction results. They are not accessible to end users or the public. We implement a TTL (time-to-live) policy and periodically remove stored PDFs that have not been accessed.

12. Intermediary Safe Harbor and Takedown Procedures

SheetsData operates as an intermediary service provider within the meaning of the South African Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, No. 25 of 2002 (Chapter XI), and analogous international frameworks including the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the EU Digital Services Act (DSA).

Our role as intermediary

• We provide automated tools that process publicly available documents at the direction of users.
• We do not manually select, review, modify, or curate the third-party content that is processed.
• We have no actual knowledge of whether any specific document processed through the Service contains material that infringes the rights of any third party.
• Upon obtaining actual knowledge of infringing content (through a valid takedown notice or otherwise), we act expeditiously to remove or disable access to such content.

Takedown notice procedure

If you are a copyright owner (or authorized to act on behalf of one) and believe that content available through the Service infringes your copyright, you may submit a takedown notice to our designated agent:

• Email: legal@sheetsdata.com
• Subject line: Copyright Takedown Notice

Your notice must include: (1) identification of the copyrighted work; (2) identification of the infringing content on our Service with sufficient detail to locate it; (3) your contact information; (4) a statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorized; (5) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner; and (6) your physical or electronic signature.

For full details and the submission form, see our Copyright Takedown page.

Our response to valid notices

• We will acknowledge receipt within 2 business days.
• We will remove or disable access to the identified content expeditiously (typically within 5 business days of a valid and complete notice).
• We may also remove all extracted data derived from the same source document.
• We will add the source URL to an internal blocklist to prevent re-extraction.

Counter-notification

If you believe that content was removed in error, you may submit a counter-notification to legal@sheetsdata.com containing: (1) identification of the removed content; (2) a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief the content was removed by mistake or misidentification; (3) your contact information; (4) a statement consenting to jurisdiction of the courts of South Africa; and (5) your signature.

Repeat infringer policy

We maintain a policy of terminating access for users who are repeat infringers of third-party copyright. If a user's queries or usage patterns result in repeated valid takedown notices, we may suspend or terminate their account.

Misrepresentation

Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that content is infringing, or that content was removed by mistake, may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees.

13. Your Obligations Regarding Third-Party Content

By using the Service, you acknowledge and agree that:

• Data obtained through the Service may contain or be derived from content that is protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights of third parties (typically component manufacturers).
• The Service provides this data for your private, internal research and reference purposes only. Your use of extracted data must comply with all applicable copyright laws in your jurisdiction.
• You must not redistribute, republish, publicly display, or commercially exploit extracted datasheet content in a manner that would constitute copyright infringement.
• You must not use the Service to systematically extract, compile, or aggregate third-party copyrighted content for the purpose of creating a competing database, publication, or service.
• You are solely responsible for ensuring that your use of data obtained from the Service complies with the intellectual property rights of third parties and all applicable laws.
• SheetsData provides the Service as a tool; your use of the output is your responsibility, and you assume all legal risk associated with how you use, store, or distribute data obtained from the Service.

14. User Content and Feedback

If you provide us with feedback, suggestions, ideas, bug reports, or other submissions ("Feedback"), you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual license to use, modify, and incorporate that Feedback into the Service without any obligation of compensation or attribution to you.

You represent that any Feedback you provide does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party.

15. Third-Party Data Sources and Services

The Service aggregates data from multiple third-party sources including component distributors (JLCPCB, Mouser, DigiKey, and others) and manufacturer websites. This data is provided subject to the terms of those third parties. We do not guarantee the availability, accuracy, or completeness of any specific data source and reserve the right to add or remove data sources at any time without notice.

Pricing, stock availability, and other distributor data is indicative only and may not reflect real-time availability, pricing, or terms. Always confirm with the distributor before placing orders. We are not party to any transaction between you and a component distributor or manufacturer.

The Service may contain links to or data from third-party websites and services. We do not endorse, control, or assume responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party services.

16. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW (INCLUDING THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT AND THE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSACTIONS ACT):

• The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise.
• We expressly disclaim all warranties including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, reliability, and completeness.
• We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of viruses or other harmful components.
• We do not warrant that any data provided by the Service is accurate, complete, current, or suitable for any particular purpose, including but not limited to hardware design, component selection, safety analysis, or regulatory compliance.
• In no event shall our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms exceed the lesser of: (a) the amount you have actually paid us in the 12 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) USD $100.
• In no event shall we be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, loss of revenue, loss of data, loss of business opportunities, loss of goodwill, cost of procurement of substitute goods or services, personal injury, property damage, product recalls, regulatory fines, or business interruption, however caused and on any theory of liability (contract, tort, strict liability, or otherwise), even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
• We are not liable for any damages arising from: (a) your reliance on data provided by the Service, including incorrect specifications, AI-generated content, or outdated information; (b) design decisions, component selections, or manufacturing choices made using data from the Service; (c) product failures, safety incidents, or regulatory non-compliance related to components researched using the Service; (d) unauthorized access to or alteration of your data or transmissions; (e) third-party conduct or content; (f) any claim that data provided by the Service infringes the intellectual property rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, or trade secret claims by component manufacturers or other rights holders.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of liability for certain types of damages. In such jurisdictions, our liability shall be limited to the greatest extent permitted by applicable law.

17. Assumption of Risk

You acknowledge and agree that the use of AI-extracted and automated data for electronic component research carries inherent risks, including the risk of inaccurate data leading to incorrect design decisions, component failures, safety hazards, or financial losses.

By using the Service, you voluntarily assume all risks associated with the use of data provided by the Service. You agree that you have an independent duty to verify all data against authoritative sources before relying on it for any purpose.

18. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless SheetsData (Pty) Ltd, its officers, directors, employees, agents, affiliates, successors, and assigns from and against any and all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees and legal costs) arising out of or relating to:

• Your use of the Service or data obtained through the Service
• Your violation of these Terms
• Your violation of any applicable law, regulation, or third-party rights
• Any claim by a third party related to products designed, manufactured, or sold using data obtained from the Service
• Your negligence or willful misconduct
• Any claim that your use, storage, redistribution, or publication of data obtained from the Service infringes the copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights of any third party, including but not limited to claims by component manufacturers, publishers, or other rights holders
• Any claim arising from your failure to comply with Section 13 (Your Obligations Regarding Third-Party Content)

This indemnification obligation survives the termination of these Terms and your use of the Service. It applies regardless of whether SheetsData is also named in or subject to the same claim.

19. Service Availability and SLA

We strive to maintain high availability but do not guarantee any specific uptime or availability level. The Service is not designed for or offered as a high-availability or mission-critical service.

We may perform maintenance, updates, migrations, or modifications that temporarily or permanently affect availability, with or without prior notice. We are not liable for any downtime, service interruptions, data loss, or performance degradation.

No service level agreement (SLA) applies unless separately agreed in writing.

20. Suspension and Termination

By us: We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, in whole or in part, at any time and for any reason, including but not limited to: violation of these Terms, non-payment, suspected fraud, abusive usage patterns, legal requirements, or discontinuation of the Service. Where reasonably possible, we will provide notice before termination.

By you: You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time through the dashboard or by contacting support@sheetsdata.com. Account closure does not entitle you to a refund of any prepaid balance unless required by applicable law.

Effect of termination: Upon termination, your right to use the Service immediately ceases. We may delete your account data in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Sections that by their nature should survive termination shall survive, including but not limited to: Data Accuracy Disclaimer, No Professional Advice, Limitation of Liability, Assumption of Risk, Indemnification, Governing Law, and Dispute Resolution.

21. Beta and Experimental Features

We may offer features designated as "beta", "experimental", "preview", or similar. These features are provided for testing and evaluation purposes and may be incomplete, contain bugs, or be withdrawn at any time. Beta features are provided "as is" with no warranties of any kind. You use beta features at your own risk. We may collect additional usage data from beta features to improve the Service.

22. Force Majeure

We shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performing our obligations under these Terms where such failure or delay results from circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to: acts of God, natural disasters, pandemic, epidemic, war, terrorism, riots, embargoes, acts of civil or military authorities, fire, floods, power outages, internet or telecommunications failures, cyberattacks, third-party service provider failures (including but not limited to cloud hosting providers, payment processors, and AI/ML service providers), government actions, or labor disputes.

23. Export Controls and Sanctions

The Service may be subject to export control laws and regulations. You agree to comply with all applicable export and re-export control laws and regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, EU dual-use regulations, and any applicable South African export controls. You may not use the Service in connection with any activities related to weapons of mass destruction, including but not limited to nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, or missile technology, without proper government authorization.

24. Electronic Communications

By creating an account, you consent to receive electronic communications from us regarding your account, billing, the Service, and changes to these Terms. These communications may include email notifications, dashboard alerts, and in-app notices. You agree that all notices, agreements, disclosures, and other communications we provide electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

25. Modifications to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify registered users of material changes via email or dashboard notification at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Non-material changes (such as formatting or clarification) may be made without notice.

Continued use of the Service after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree with the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service and close your account before the effective date.

26. Dispute Resolution

Informal resolution: Before initiating any formal proceedings, you agree to first contact us at legal@sheetsdata.com and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.

Mediation: If the dispute cannot be resolved informally, either party may refer the dispute to mediation administered by the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) or a mutually agreed mediator. The costs of mediation shall be shared equally.

Jurisdiction: If mediation fails, any disputes shall be resolved in the courts of South Africa, and you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts.

Class action waiver: To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you agree that any dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class, consolidated, or representative action.

27. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. The application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is expressly excluded.

If you are a consumer in the European Union, nothing in these Terms affects your mandatory statutory rights under EU consumer protection law, including the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU) and the Unfair Contract Terms Directive (93/13/EEC).

If you are a consumer in South Africa, nothing in these Terms limits your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, No. 68 of 2008, or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, No. 25 of 2002, to the extent that such rights cannot be excluded by agreement.

28. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or if it cannot be modified, it shall be severed from these Terms. The remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

29. Waiver

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision. A waiver of any term shall only be effective if in writing and signed by an authorized representative of SheetsData (Pty) Ltd.

30. Assignment

You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights and obligations under these Terms to any affiliate or successor entity in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets, without your consent.

31. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any other policies referenced herein, constitute the entire agreement between you and SheetsData (Pty) Ltd regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements, understandings, and representations, whether written or oral.

No terms or conditions set forth in any purchase order, confirmation, or other document issued by you shall modify or supplement these Terms, and any such terms are hereby rejected.

32. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact us at:

• General/Legal: legal@sheetsdata.com
• Billing: billing@sheetsdata.com
• Privacy: privacy@sheetsdata.com
• Support: support@sheetsdata.com

SheetsData (Pty) Ltd
Republic of South Africa