Legal

Intellectual property provisions

Last updated: September 2026

1. Ownership

Unless otherwise stated, the original intellectual property created for ABC Science—including its schemes of work, lesson plans, presentations, worksheets, assessment materials, practical-investigation guidance, demonstration instructions, videos, original illustrations, diagrams and associated teaching resources—is owned by Daniel Sullivan, founder of ABC Science.

Daniel Sullivan has made these resources available through Humanity Gives and ABC Science for the charitable purpose of improving science education in schools.

Daniel Sullivan retains ownership of the intellectual property while granting Humanity Gives the continuing authority to make the resources available to eligible schools under the educational licence set out in this notice.

Certain materials may contain intellectual property owned by other contributors or third parties. Third-party materials remain the property of their respective owners and may be subject to separate licence conditions.

Nothing in this notice transfers ownership of the ABC Science intellectual property to Humanity Gives, a participating school, member of staff, pupil, subscriber or other user.

2. Daniel Sullivan’s gift to schools

Daniel Sullivan has granted participating schools a perpetual, royalty-free licence to use the ABC Science resources supplied to them for their own internal, non-commercial teaching and learning.

This licence represents Daniel’s personal commitment to making high-quality practical science education freely available to schools through the charitable work of ABC Science and Humanity Gives.

Schools will not be charged a subscription or resource-licence fee for the ABC Science resources made available to them through this charitable arrangement.

The licence permits educational use but does not transfer ownership of the resources or permit their sale, commercial exploitation, public distribution or unauthorised sharing.

A school’s right to use resources it has lawfully received may continue indefinitely, provided that the school:

• uses them solely for its own internal, non-commercial educational purposes;
• does not share them with another school or organisation without written permission;
• does not sell, license, publish or commercially exploit them;
• retains all copyright notices, acknowledgements and branding; and
• complies with the remaining provisions of this licence.

Access to future resources, updates, online services, equipment, training and the ABC Science portal depends upon ABC Science remaining operational, the availability of charitable funding and the school continuing to satisfy any applicable registration and eligibility requirements.

Free educational use does not mean that the resources are free of copyright or have been placed in the public domain.

3. Duration, suspension and termination

The educational licence covering resources lawfully supplied to a participating school is perpetual, subject to the school’s continuing compliance with its terms.

ABC Science or the intellectual-property owner may suspend portal access, withhold future resources or terminate a school’s licence if the school or one of its users:

• shares, sells or commercially exploits a resource;
• distributes it to another school or organisation without permission;
• publishes it on a public or commercial platform;
• gives access credentials to an unauthorised person;
• removes copyright or ownership information;
• infringes the owner’s intellectual-property rights; or
• otherwise commits a serious or repeated breach of the licence.

Where reasonably possible, the school will be informed of the alleged breach and given an opportunity to correct it.

If the licence is terminated because of a breach, the school must stop using the affected resources and delete or destroy its copies if requested by the intellectual-property owner.

If ABC Science or Humanity Gives ceases to operate, a compliant school may continue using resources it previously received for its own internal, non-commercial education. However, continued access to websites, portals, updates, support, equipment or future resources cannot be guaranteed.

The copyright and other intellectual-property rights will remain owned by Daniel Sullivan or any person or organisation to whom he subsequently assigns those rights.

4. Copyright and licence notice