Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of These Terms

These Terms of Service govern your access to and use of PathBuddy, including our website, account portal, desktop application, licensing services, subscription services, cloud dictation access, and related support. By creating an account, purchasing a subscription, downloading the software, or using PathBuddy, you agree to these Terms.

2. What PathBuddy Provides

PathBuddy is desktop software designed to assist with structured autopsy, external examination, and related forensic pathology documentation workflows. PathBuddy may include form completion, dictation support, report generation, label generation, local case file handling, account login, license validation, usage tracking, and subscription-based access.

PathBuddy is a documentation assistance tool. It does not replace professional judgment, medical review, legal review, agency policy, or required quality-control procedures.

3. Accounts and Eligibility

You must provide accurate account information and keep your login credentials secure. You are responsible for all activity under your account. You may not share your account, license, device authorization, or subscription access with unauthorized users.

4. Subscriptions, Billing, Cancellation, and Refunds

PathBuddy is offered as a paid subscription service. Subscription options may include monthly and annual plans. Payments are processed by Stripe or another third-party payment processor. We do not store your full credit card number on our servers.

By purchasing a subscription, you authorize recurring charges until you cancel. You may manage or cancel billing through the Stripe-hosted customer billing portal or by contacting [email protected]. If you cancel, your paid access may continue until the end of the current billing period unless otherwise stated or required by law.

Unless otherwise stated or required by law, subscription payments are non-refundable. If there is a duplicate charge, billing error, or exceptional support issue, contact support and we will review the request.

5. Trials, Promotions, and Plan Changes

We may offer free trials, promotional pricing, or discounted plans. Trial and promotional terms may change or end at any time. Plan changes may be handled by Stripe and may be prorated or applied at the next billing cycle depending on the billing configuration.

6. User Responsibilities

You are responsible for:

• Reviewing all text, reports, labels, and outputs before relying on them.
• Verifying dictation accuracy and correcting transcription errors.
• Maintaining your own backups of case files and reports.
• Complying with employer policies, agency requirements, professional standards, and applicable laws.
• Ensuring you are authorized to enter, process, transmit, or store any information used with PathBuddy.
• Determining whether cloud dictation is appropriate for your data and organization.

7. Medical, Legal, and Professional Disclaimer

PathBuddy does not provide medical, legal, forensic, diagnostic, or professional advice. Outputs generated by PathBuddy may contain errors, omissions, formatting issues, transcription mistakes, or inaccurate suggestions. You are solely responsible for reviewing and approving all final documentation.

8. Sensitive Information and Case Data

PathBuddy may be used in workflows involving sensitive information, including potentially protected health information, forensic case information, or government records. Unless a separate written agreement states otherwise, PathBuddy is not offered as a hosted electronic health record system, official records repository, or guaranteed HIPAA-compliant storage platform.

You are responsible for determining whether your use of PathBuddy complies with HIPAA, agency rules, record retention laws, confidentiality obligations, and other applicable requirements.

9. Cloud Dictation, Soniox, and Third-Party Services

Some PathBuddy features may use third-party services, such as Stripe, AWS, email providers, hosting providers, and cloud transcription providers. PathBuddy cloud dictation may use Soniox. If enabled, audio or dictation content may be transmitted to Soniox for speech-to-text processing.

Soniox publishes its own terms, privacy policy, security documentation, and compliance statements. Soniox currently states that it maintains SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, GDPR, and HIPAA-related compliance materials, and that certain real-time processing is handled in memory without storing audio/transcripts unless storage is explicitly used. Those statements are provided by Soniox, not PathBuddy, and may change.

PathBuddy is not responsible for third-party service outages, data handling, policy changes, accuracy issues, or compliance failures except to the extent required by applicable law or a separate written agreement. You should review applicable third-party terms and privacy policies before enabling cloud features.

10. Software License

Subject to your compliance with these Terms and payment of applicable fees, PathBuddy grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use the software for authorized internal work purposes.

You may not copy, resell, sublicense, rent, distribute, reverse engineer, bypass licensing or subscription controls, or use PathBuddy to violate laws or third-party rights.

11. Availability and Offline Use

Some PathBuddy features require internet access, including login, license validation, subscription checks, cloud transcription, billing portal access, and account management. Offline access may be limited, time-restricted, or unavailable depending on your subscription status and software version.

12. Support

Support is provided through [email protected] or other support channels we make available. Do not send confidential case files, protected health information, or sensitive agency records unless specifically requested and authorized.

13. Ownership

PathBuddy, including its software, design, workflows, features, branding, documentation, and related materials, is owned by PathBuddy or its licensors. You retain ownership of your own case files and documentation.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, PathBuddy will not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, inaccurate documentation, professional errors, missed deadlines, or third-party service failures arising from use of PathBuddy.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Continued use of PathBuddy after changes become effective means you accept the updated Terms.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to [email protected].