Disclaimer

This is a page discussing the concept of a disclaimer. For the Wikipedia disclaimer, please see Wikipedia:General disclaimer.

This is a volleyball court in a business park in Goleta, California, USA. Note the disclaimer on the sign standing at the right hand side of the volleyball court.

A disclaimer is a legal statement which generally states that the person/group authoring the disclaimer is not responsible for any mishap in the event of using whatever object or information the disclaimer is attached to. Disclaimers also alert the reader to risks involved in the use of the product in question. This is generally done as a measure of legal protection; if someone hurts himself misusing something with such a disclaimer, he could not (legally) claim in a court of law that he was unaware of the potential safety risks.

A special form of disclaimer is the All persons fictitious disclaimer, a special disclaimer in regard to slander.

In the case of fanfiction, disclaimers are legal statements saying that the author of the fanfiction does not, in any way, profit from the story and that all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

Patent law

Main article: [[:disclaimer (patent)]]

In patent law, a disclaimer is an amendment consisting in limiting a claim of a patent or patent application by introducing a negative feature. The allowability of disclaimers is subject to particular conditions, which may vary widely from one country to another.

Estate law

In estate or inheritance law, a disclaimer (also called disclaimer of interest) is a written document voluntarily signed by an heir to an estate in which the said heir does not accept (disclaims) the part of the estate of a deceased person which the heir is entitled to receive. The disclaimed part of the estate is then inherited not necessarily by a person of the disclaiming heir's choice, but by the next heir in line to receive that part of the estate as if the disclaiming heir were also deceased, either according to the will, beneficiary designation, or the laws of intestacy. Government tax agencies have further rules on such disclaimers. Reasons for such disclaimers may include imminent death of the disclaimant or the fact that the disclaimant already has enough wealth. For full article, see Disclaimer of interest.