Legal
Intellectual Property
What Tortoise owns, what it does not own, and how to raise a concern. Deliberately short.
Tortoise materials
Tortoise 40™ and its original platform materials, branding, software, interface designs, documentation, graphics, planning materials, reports, and other original content may be protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, contract, and other intellectual-property laws.
This is a statement of position. It does not grant or claim any protection beyond what applicable law provides.
No transfer of ownership
Except where expressly permitted, access to Tortoise does not transfer ownership of Tortoise intellectual property. Using the platform gives you the right to use the platform, not a right in it.
User and agency content
Organizations and participants retain rights they hold in their own documents, data, submissions, comments, maps, and uploaded materials.
Using Tortoise grants only the permissions required to provide the service. Tortoise does not claim ownership of an agency's public records, project documents, or a participant's submission.
Third-party content
Third-party materials remain owned by their respective rights holders, and are used under the terms that apply to them.
Reporting infringement
An intellectual-property contact has not been configured yet. An administrator must record a verified contact address before notices can be received.
What is not published here
This page describes user-visible capabilities only. It does not describe internal AI prompts, algorithms, scoring or ranking methods, proprietary backend architecture, private system workflows, trade-secret implementation details, or potentially patentable mechanisms.
Those are kept internal for review, and are not disclosed publicly.
Trademarks
Tortoise 40™ is a claimed trademark. No federal registration is claimed or implied.
The ™ symbol is used to indicate a claimed trademark. Names and marks belonging to others remain the property of their owners.