Intellectual Property & Other
- Patents
- Trademarks
- Copyrights
- IP Licensing & Agreements
- Cyber Security
- Unsolicited Idea Submission Policy
Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) is a fintech company owned by seven of the country’s largest banks. Early Warning, as a company, achieves its vision of transforming lives by innovating everyday financial experiences. Beyond the benefits of this innovation for Early Warning, investing in this innovation is most prosperous when it also creates more opportunities and solutions for our customers, partners, and developers. To achieve this, we must ensure that our innovation policy supports and reinforces: (1) our ability to deliver cutting-edge technology; and (2) the ability of our intended audience to build on that technology to reach greater heights. As such, Early Warning’s innovation is embodied in its Intellectual Property, including, without limitation, patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and data.
Patents
Patents exist to promote innovation and help develop products. As such, Early Warning is committed to detailed management of its intellectual property, including the creation and maintenance of a robust patent portfolio that promotes and encourages innovation.
Learn about our patent portfolio
Trademarks
Early Warning understands the importance of reputation in the eyes of our consumers in connection to our products, services, and experience. As such, Early Warning builds significant goodwill in its brand names and assets to maintain its reputation in the marketplace as the source of household services such as Zelle®.
Review and learn about our trademark and branding guidelines
Copyrights
Early Warning content such as images, text, publications, videos, software, and the like are owned by (1) Early Warning or (2) third parties who authorized Early Warning to use such content. Review and learn about our copyright requirements
IP Licensing & Agreements
Early Warning products and services are subject to the execution of the proper licenses and agreements by its customers. From time-to-time, Early Warning may engage third party products or services subject to a separate license or agreement with said third party. Either way, Early Warning invests significant resources in research and development to offer a range of products and services to create better experiences for our customers.
Review and learn about our process
Cybersecurity
As technical advancements are made, cybersecurity is more important than ever before. Early Warning takes cybersecurity very seriously. Early Warning regularly updates and maintains a written security program/policy that comprises necessary safeguards (i.e., administrative, physical, technical, and environmental) to protect Early Warning’s network and systems against unauthorized access as well as reasonably foreseeable or anticipated threats and hazards.
Unsolicited Idea Submission Policy
Early Warning or any of its employees, or otherwise agents, do not accept or consider unsolicited concepts or ideas. For more details or information regarding this policy or any potential exceptions, please read our policy via the link below.
Review and learn about our unsolicited idea submission policy
Patents
Early Warning’s patent portfolio echoes our consistent and significant investment in research and development across multiple technology areas, primarily within the financial industry, ranging from systems and methods for secure electronic payments and transfers, fraud and risk management and detection, identity, payment and accounts verification, and data sharing. Early Warning approaches its patent portfolio with a primary focus on quality over quantity. This approach enables Early Warning to focus our time, energy, and resources on innovation worth pursuing, in particular, inventions that closely align with the future of the company and the ever-changing financial industry.
Innovation is the cornerstone of Early Warning’s business to provide intelligence to the financial services industry. We are committed to thinking outside the box and inventing products and services different from anything else on the market. As such, to maintain the integrity of our patent program, Early Warning supports policies that promote overall patent quality. In particular, Early Warning engages in efficient and foreseeable prosecution and resolution ultimately leading to issuance of patent claims that are clear and valid.
Trademarks
The main purpose of trademark law is to prevent competitors from engaging in unfair competition (i.e., counterfeiting and fraud) by confusing consumers as to the source of a particular product or service. As such, trademarks give consumers confidence to distinguish and identify the source of a particular product or service. A trademark can be any word, phrase, design, symbol, logo, or a combination of these that distinguishes the source of particular goods or services. Another aspect of trademark law is trade dress, which is the characteristic of the visual appearance of a product or service such as packaging, size, shape, color, texture, graphics, and overall look and feel.
Early Warning understands the importance of reputation in the eyes of our consumers in connection to our products, services, and experience. As such, Early Warning builds significant goodwill in its brand names and assets to maintain its reputation in the marketplace as the source of household services such as Zelle®. Early Warning understands and recognizes the importance of the roles our consumers and the general public play in building our brands in a reputable manner. To maintain our goodwill and reputation in connection to our various brands, we have created Trademark Guidelines to ensure proper usage of our brand assets, which may be updated from time to time. It is important to understand and acknowledge that many uses of Early Warning brand assets, including our logos, icons, slogans, taglines, and other designs, will require a license prior to use. As such, unless you have an express trademark license from Early Warning, the Trademark Guidelines included herein will exclusively govern your use of any and all Early Warning brand assets. For reference, please review our non-exhaustive list of Early Warning Brand Assets via the link available below. The absence of brand name or logo from this list does not constitute a waiver of Early Warning’s trademark or other intellectual property rights in connection to such trademark.
Early Warning reserves the right to take action as it deems appropriate to protect its consumers and the general public by enforcing proper usage of its brand assets.
View Early Warning Trademark Guidelines
Copyrights
Copyright law, although varies by country, generally aims to protect original creative works, such as books, images, music, videos, video games, software, and much more. Generally, copyright owners have the right to control specific unauthorized uses of their work (i.e., right to sue third parties using their copyrighted work without permission). As such, it is a good idea to obtain permission to use copyrighted content, especially if the use is for commercial purposes. However, it is important to note that even if you have permission to use copyrighted material such as an image, you may still need additional authorization to use the subject-matter depicted in said image (i.e., image depicts a person, place, or thing) because another party’s intellectual property rights may be further involved. You are responsible for obtaining all the necessary permissions and licenses to use any desired content prior to such use.
Early Warning content and material such as images, text, publications, videos, software, and the like are owned by (1) Early Warning or (2) third parties who authorized Early Warning to use such content and material. Early Warning cannot provide authorization to use content or material that is owned by third parties. As far as Early Warning content and material is concerned, you may only copy, modify, distribute, display, license, or sell said content and material if you are granted express permission by Early Warning in writing.
For any use of Early Warning copyrighted material under the fair use exception, please consult counsel of your choice. If you are interested in using Early Warning copyrighted material in third party works such as books, videos, publications, etc., please complete the email us at copyright@earlywarning.com. Upon receipt of your request, we may require additional information.
IP Licensing & Agreements
Before being able to acquire Early Warning software products, it is standard practice to have an executed master service agreement, software license agreement, and/or any other agreements deemed appropriate. Please reach out to the Early Warning Sales team if you are interested in acquiring Early Warning software products.
Developer software terms, condition, and licensing information is available at Early Warning’s Developer website. Access to the Early Warning Developer website is limited to customers who have executed necessary agreements with Early Warning. If you are an employee or agent of an Early Warning customer trying to gain access to the Early Warning Developer portal, please contact the named administrator for said customer.
Unsolicited Idea Submission Policy
Early Warning or any of its employees, or otherwise agents, do not accept, consider, or review any unsolicited concepts, ideas, works, proposals, works, suggestions, artwork, content, or the like, no matter the intended purpose or utility, including, without limitation, for marketing strategies, advertising campaigns, promotions, products, services, technologies, product enhancements or modifications, as well as product or service names, content, or creative materials (collectively, “Submissions”). As such, please do not send or provide Submissions for Early Warning’s consideration in any form or medium to Early Warning or any of its employees, including any agents, contractors, and consultants.
This strict policy ensures the avoidance of potential disputes or misunderstandings in the event Early Warning’s content, materials, products, services, and the like potentially appear similar to Submissions sent or provided to Early Warning. Despite this policy and request, if you still move forward with sending or otherwise providing Early Warning with your Submissions, then the following terms will apply regardless of the contents of your Submission in its entirety (including any contrary correspondence accompanying your Submission):
Terms of Unsolicited Idea Submission
You, by submitting the relevant Submission, agree that:
- You are authorized to make the Submission, and that your Submission does not include any confidential information, proprietary know-how, trade secrets, or other intellectual property rights of any third party.
- You expressly acknowledge and represent that you had a full and fair opportunity to review and consult these terms herein with counsel of your choice.
- Acceptance of your Submission imposes absolutely no obligations on Early Warning, including, without limitation:
- Early Warning will not have any obligation to acknowledge or review your Submission, or otherwise respond to you in any way regarding your Submission; and
- Early Warning will not be subject to confidentiality or have any obligation to keep your Submission confidential, and may, in its discretion, publish or publicly disclose your Submission in any form.
- Your Submission, its content, and any derivatives, modifications, or enhancements thereof, automatically become the property of Early Warning, without any compensation of any kind owed to you.
- Early Warning may use or redistribute your Submission, its content, and any derivatives, modifications, or enhancements thereof, for any purpose and in any form (including, without limitation, in new Early Warning products and services, or modifications/enhancements of existing Early Warning products and services).