Agreements That Protect Your Investment

We believe in transparent, fair partnerships. Here is the high-level framework that protects both parties:

• Ownership & Liability: You retain full ownership and title of the tool at all times. APD is responsible for operational care, safe handling, and housing the asset in our secure facility.
• Guaranteed Priority & Utilization: Your production runs receive guaranteed first priority. To ensure the tool is always in peak operational condition and to leverage our team's expertise, APD retains the right to operate the tool for other applications during its idle time. This utilization by APD never compromises your priority and is a key factor in our ability to provide you with a favorable cost structure.
• Intellectual Property & Confidentiality:
  a. Customer Confidentiality: All your proprietary designs, part specifications, test data, and business information are treated as your sole confidential information and are fully safeguarded under our mutual NDA.
  b. APD Process IP: The "process recipe"—which includes all dicing parameters, machine techniques, and operational know-how developed, optimized, or applied by the APD team ("Process IP")—is our core, proprietary Intellectual Property. This remains true even in cases of collaborative development. As part of the JCP service, you receive the guaranteed output of this process. The Process IP itself remains the exclusive, non-transferable property of APD at all times.
• Maintenance & Support: APD manages all routine and preventative maintenance. The cost of major repairs, service visits, or non-consumable spare parts remains the responsibility of the tool owner (you) and will be approved in advance of any expenditure.
• Term & Off-Ramping: The partnership has a clear, defined term with mutual notice for termination. Upon conclusion, we will fully coordinate the safe and efficient transfer of your asset (the tool). At this time, the service agreement is terminated, and all access to and use of APD's Process IP is concluded. APD has no obligation to transfer, document, or license its Process IP after termination.