Terms of Service

1. Acceptance

These Terms govern your use of the Doctors’ Choice Awards website and platform (the “Service”). By using the Service, you agree to them.

2. The Service

Doctors’ Choice Awards is owned and operated by Ekwa Marketing, a dental and medical marketing company. Selection is governed by our published methodology; nothing purchasable affects it. Recognition reflects identity verification and verified peer endorsement under our published methodology. The Service is informational. Recognition is not medical advice, a guarantee of any clinical outcome, or a recommendation of a provider for your individual needs.

3. Eligibility and verification

Recognition is limited to providers who pass identity verification against primary sources, re-checked periodically. You may not misrepresent your identity, credentials, licensure or specialty, or submit another person’s information as your own.

4. Badge license

If you are recognized, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, revocable, non-transferable license to display the corresponding badge and to make accurate claims about your recognition using the scope we provide. You agree to:

• use the badge only as a live link to its verification page;
• state recognition within its stated scope, year and tier;
• not alter the badge or imply recognition you have not received; and
• stop using the badge if your recognition lapses or is revoked.

5. Submissions

If you submit an endorsement, profile information, correction or other content, you represent that you have the right to do so and that it is accurate. You grant Ekwa Marketing a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to host, store, moderate, reproduce and publish it in connection with the Service. You receive no payment or other reward for endorsing, nominating or reviewing.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• manipulate recognition through reciprocal endorsement rings, duplicate identities or other gaming;
• impersonate any person or entity, or misstate your affiliation;
• scrape, harvest or bulk-extract data from the Service;
• interfere with the operation or security of the Service; or
• use the Service for any unlawful or misleading purpose.

7. Intellectual property

The Doctors’ Choice Awards name, logo, badge designs and site content are owned by Ekwa Marketing or its licensors. Except for the badge license in Section 4, these Terms grant you no rights in them.

8. Disclaimers

Recognition is based on the published methodology and on information available to us at the time of verification. We do not warrant that any provider’s information is complete or error-free. The Service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Ekwa Marketing and its affiliates are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, goodwill or data, arising from your use of the Service.

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Ekwa Marketing and its affiliates from claims arising out of your submissions, your display of a badge, or your breach of these Terms.

11. Corrections, disputes and opt-out

You may request a correction, dispute a recognition decision, or opt out of listing. The process and timeframes are on the methodology page. Requests go through Contact.

12. Changes

We may update these Terms. Changes are reflected in the “Last updated” date above, and continued use after a change constitutes acceptance.

We may change or withdraw subscription features on 30 days’ notice. Your locked rate stays locked while you remain subscribed.

We may change, pause or retire any award, rank, milestone or feature, including skipping an award where too few doctors qualify. Recognition already issued stands. Changes to how awards are decided apply from the next cycle and are published before it opens.

13. Operating entity

The Service is operated by Ekwa Marketing Inc., 303 Pinetree Way, Mississauga, ON L5G 2R4, Canada. Questions about these Terms: info@doctorschoiceawards.org.