Intellectual Property Policy

Effective Date: 4/1/26

About This Policy

This Intellectual Property Policy governs the ownership, use, and protection of all content, materials, recordings, and artifacts arising from your engagement with Cogent Language's mentoring program. It applies to all mentees from the time of registration and continues in effect after the program ends.

The Mentoring Service

The only service that Cogent Language is obligated to provide is spoken discourse, delivered through synchronous sessions with your assigned mentor. Cogent Language guarantees its availability and ability to conduct these sessions from the time of registration through the whole program, for up to 12 weeks total.

While the mentoring service is bounded by this 12-week period, the intellectual property obligations set out in this policy are not. They survive the completion or termination of the program and remain in effect indefinitely, as described in the relevant sections below.

Session Recording

Cogent Language will not record mentoring sessions. You are welcome to record sessions for your own personal study and reference.

By registering and paying for the mentoring program, you acknowledge and agree to the following conditions governing any recordings you make:

You may share recordings informally, for example with a trusted colleague, friend, or family member, provided this is done without commercial intent and without misrepresenting the content or its source.

However, you may not:

  • Sell or monetize recordings in any form

  • Present Cogent Language's spoken discourse as your own original work

  • Share recordings in any way that misrepresents or damages Cogent Language, its mentor(s), or its services

  • Use recordings as the basis for a competing service or product

Cogent Language retains rights over its own spoken discourse, voice, and image as captured in any recording. These rights survive the termination or completion of the mentoring program and remain in effect indefinitely.

Artifacts and Collaborative Work

In or between sessions, you, your assigned mentor, and/or both parties may create artifacts such as mind maps, resumes, slide decks, role plays, standard operating procedures, AI agents, project documentation, or strategies for study, job search, or interviews. Any drafting or collaboration on such artifacts by Cogent Language is with your permission, but remains at Cogent Language's sole discretion.

The creation of any such artifact is not included in or guaranteed by your purchase of the mentoring service.

Collaborative and Pre-Existing Intellectual Property

Cogent Language retains intellectual property rights over any frameworks, templates, tools, or other materials that it has developed prior to or independently of your mentoring program. Where Cogent Language chooses, at its sole discretion, to share such materials with you during the program, you are welcome to adapt and use them for your own personal and professional purposes.

However, the underlying frameworks and templates themselves remain the intellectual property of Cogent Language. You may not represent them as your own original work, share them with third parties, or use them for commercial purposes without the prior written consent of Cogent Language.

Where you and Cogent Language collaborate to create new artifacts during the program, ownership of those artifacts is assigned to you as the mentee. This assignment applies to the new work produced, and does not extend to any pre-existing Cogent Language frameworks or templates that may have informed or contributed to that work.

The intellectual property provisions of this policy survive the termination or completion of the mentoring program and remain in effect indefinitely. Your obligations regarding Cogent Language's pre-existing intellectual property continue regardless of when or how your program ends.

Confidentiality

Any artifacts created during or between sessions remain your intellectual property. Cogent Language will not retain, copy, or share them beyond what is necessary to deliver the mentoring service.

However, please be aware that two third-party platforms are integral to how Cogent Language operates. This website is hosted by Squarespace, and sessions are conducted via Zoom. Both platforms have their own data retention and privacy practices that operate independently of Cogent Language's commitments here. We encourage you to review the Squarespace and Zoom Privacy Policies directly.

Beyond Squarespace and Zoom, artifacts may also be created using other third-party platforms — such as collaborative workspaces, document tools, or AI tools — depending on the needs of your program. Where this occurs, those platforms' own data retention and privacy practices will similarly apply. Cogent Language does not control and cannot be held responsible for how any third-party platform handles your data.

Within these boundaries, Cogent Language commits to treating all artifacts and session content with strict confidentiality.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

This policy is governed by the laws of the State of Arizona, United States of America. Any disputes arising under this policy shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the State of Arizona.