Terms & Conditions

Welcome to http://www.prepkitchenessentials.com/ ("Web Site")! We are part of “Grit and Nectar, Inc.”

Please take a few minutes to review these Terms and Conditions. These Terms and Conditions apply to your access and use of the Web Site and our mobile applications. Your use of our Web Site or our mobile application constitutes your agreement to follow these Terms and Conditions and to be bound by them.

These Terms and Conditions May Change

Grit and Nectar, Inc. reserves the right to update or modify these Terms and Conditions at any time without prior notice. Those changes will go into effect on the Last Updated Date shown in the revised Terms and Conditions. By continuing to use the Web Site or our mobile applications, you are agreeing to the revised Terms and Conditions. For this reason, we encourage you to review these Terms and Conditions whenever you purchase products from us or use our Web Site or mobile applications.

Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Web Site or our mobile applications. If you are under the age of majority in your state of residence (a minor) your parent or legal guardian must agree to these Terms and Conditions on your behalf and you may only access and use the Web Site and our mobile applications with permission from your parent or legal guardian.

Acceptable Use

You are responsible for your use of the Web Site and mobile applications, and for any use of the Web Site or mobile applications made using your account. Our goal is to create a positive, useful, and safe user experience. To promote this goal, we prohibit certain kinds of conduct that may be harmful to other users or to us. When you use the Web Site or mobile applications, you may not:

• violate any law or regulation;
• violate, infringe, or misappropriate other people's intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other legal rights;
• post or share anything that is illegal, abusive, harassing, harmful to reputation, pornographic, indecent, profane, obscene, hateful, racist, or otherwise objectionable;
• send unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or commercial communications, such as spam;
• engage in spidering or harvesting, or participate in the use of software, including spyware, designed to collect data from the Web Site or mobile applications;
• transmit any viruses or other computer instructions or technological means whose purpose is to disrupt, damage, or interfere with the use of computers or related systems;
• stalk, harass, or harm another individual;
• impersonate any person or entity or perform any other similar fraudulent activity, such as phishing;
• use any means to scrape or crawl any Web pages contained in the Web Site;
• attempt to circumvent any technological measure implemented by us or any of our providers or any other third party (including another user) to protect the Web Site or mobile applications;
• attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any of the software or other underlying code used to provide the Web Site or mobile applications; or
• advocate, encourage, or assist any third party in doing any of the foregoing.

Copyright Policy

We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement and terminate accounts of repeat infringers according to the process set out in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please forward the following information to the Copyright Agent named below:

• Your address, telephone number, and email address.

• A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed.

• A description of where the alleged infringing material is located.

• A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by you, the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

• An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest.

• A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

PREP Kitchen Essentials
12207 Seal Beach Blvd.
Seal Beach, CA 90740

For clarity, only copyright infringement notices should go to our Copyright Agent. You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this section, your notice may not be valid.

If you believe the content that was removed (or to which access was disabled) is not infringing, or that you have the authorization from the copyright owner, the copyright owner's agent, or pursuant to the law, to post and use such content, you may submit a counter-notice to the address listed above containing the following information:

• Your physical or electronic signature;

• Identification of the content that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the content appeared before it was removed or disabled;

• A statement that you have a good faith belief that the content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or a misidentification of the content; and

• Your name, physical address, telephone number, and e-mail address, a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court in San Francisco, California, and a statement that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement.

After we receive your counter-notification, we will forward it to the party who submitted the original claim of copyright infringement. Please note that when we forward the counter-notification, it includes your personal information. By submitting a counter-notification, you consent to having your information revealed in this way. We will not forward the counter-notification to any party other than the original claimant.

After we send out the counter-notification, the claimant must then notify us within 10 days that he or she has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain you from engaging in infringing activity relating to the content that was removed or disabled. If we receive such notification we will be unable to restore the material. If we do not receive such notification, we may reinstate the material.

Hyperlinks to other Web Sites

To the extent our Web Site contains hyperlinks to outside services and resources, the availability and content of which Grit and Nectar, Inc. does not control, any concerns regarding any such service or resource, or any hyperlink thereto, should be directed to the particular outside service or resource.

Disclaimer

THIS WEB SITE AND OUR MOBILE APPLICATIONS, AND ALL CONTENT AVAILABLE ON THIS WEB SITE, OUR MOBILE APPLICATIONS, OR BOTH, ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR THOSE ARISING OUT OF A COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE, BY YOUR USE OF THIS WEB SITE OR OUR MOBILE APPLICATIONS, AS APPLICABLE, THAT YOUR USE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK, THAT YOU ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH ALL NECESSARY SERVICING OR REPAIRS OF ANY EQUIPMENT YOU USE IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE, AND THAT Grit and Nectar, INC. AND ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, DIRECTORS, SHAREHOLDERS, PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, AGENTS, AND LICENSORS ("AFFILIATES") SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THIS WEB SITE OR OUR MOBILE APPLICATIONS.

IN PARTICULAR AND TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, GRIT AND NECTAR, INC. AND ITS AFFILIATES MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF CONTENT AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE WEB SITE OR MOBILE APPLICATIONS, OR THE CONTENT OF ANY WEBSITES OR ONLINE SERVICES LINKED TO OR INTEGRATED WITH THE WEB SITE OR MOBILE APPLICATIONS. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, Grit and Nectar, INC. AND ITS AFFILIATES WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY FOR ANY: (A) ERRORS, MISTAKES, OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT; (b) PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF THE WEB SITE OR MOBILE APPLICATIONS; (c) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SERVERS OR OF ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION OR USER DATA; (d) ANY INTERRUPTION OF TRANSMISSION TO OR FROM THE WEB SITE OR MOBILE APPLICATIONS; (e) ANY BUGS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR THE LIKE WHICH MAY BE TRANSMITTED ON OR THROUGH THE WEB SITE OR MOBILE APPLICATIONS BY ANY THIRD PARTY; OR (f) ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF ANY CONTENT POSTED OR SHARED THROUGH THE WEB SITE OR MOBILE APPLICATIONS.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL Grit and Nectar, INC. OR ITS AFFILIATES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING FOR THE INDIRECT LOSS OF PROFIT, REVENUE, OR DATA) ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE WEB SITE OR MOBILE APPLICATIONS, HOWEVER CAUSED, AND UNDER WHATEVER CAUSE OF ACTION OR THEORY OF LIABILITY BROUGHT (INCLUDING UNDER ANY CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, OR OTHER TORT THEORY OF LIABILITY) EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation or exclusion of liability for damages. Accordingly, some of the above limitations and disclaimers may not apply to you. To the extent we may not, as a matter of applicable law, disclaim any warranty or limit our liability, the scope and duration of such warranty and the extent of our liability will be the minimum permitted under such law.

Inaccuracy Disclaimer

From time to time there may be information on our Web Site or in our catalog that contains typographical errors, inaccuracies, or omissions that may relate to product descriptions, pricing, and availability. Grit and Nectar, Inc. reserves the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions and to change or update information at any time without prior notice (including after you have submitted your order). If you do not wish to continue your purchase after pricing or other information has been corrected, please contact us right away and we will work with you to cancel or return your order.

Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Grit and Nectar, Inc. and its Affiliates from and against any and all claims, costs, proceedings, demands, losses, damages, and expenses (including, without limitation, reasonable attorney's fees and legal costs) of any kind or nature, arising from or relating to, any actual or alleged breach of these Terms and Conditions by you or anyone using your account. If we assume the defense of such a matter, you will reasonably cooperate with us in such defense.

Arbitration Agreement & Waiver of Certain Rights

You and Grit and Nectar, Inc. agree that we will resolve any disputes between us through binding and final arbitration instead of through court proceedings. You and Grit and Nectar, Inc. hereby waive any right to a jury trial of any Claim. All controversies, claims, counterclaims, or other disputes arising between you and Grit and Nectar, Inc. relating to these Terms and Conditions or the Web Site or our mobile applications (each a "Claim") shall be submitted for binding arbitration in accordance with the Rules of the American Arbitration Association ("AAA Rules"). The arbitration will be heard and determined by a single arbitrator. The arbitrator's decision in any such arbitration will be final and binding upon the parties and may be enforced in any court of competent jurisdiction. The parties agree that the arbitration will be kept confidential and that the existence of the proceeding and any element of it (including, without limitation, any pleadings, briefs or other documents submitted or exchanged and any testimony or other oral submissions and awards) will not be disclosed beyond the arbitration proceedings, except as may lawfully be required in judicial proceedings relating to the arbitration or by applicable disclosure rules and regulations of securities regulatory authorities or other governmental agencies.

If you demonstrate that the costs of arbitration will be prohibitive as compared to the costs of litigation, Grit and Nectar, Inc. will pay as much of the administrative costs and arbitrator's fees required for the arbitration as the arbitrator deems necessary to prevent the cost of the arbitration from being prohibitive. In the final award, the arbitrator may apportion the costs of arbitration and the compensation of the arbitrator among the parties in such amounts as the arbitrator deems appropriate.

This arbitration agreement does not preclude you or Grit and Nectar, Inc. from seeking action by federal, state, or local government agencies. You and Grit and Nectar, Inc. also have the right to bring qualifying claims in small claims court. In addition, you and Grit and Nectar, Inc. retain the right to apply to any court of competent jurisdiction for provisional relief, including pre-arbitral attachments or preliminary injunctions, and any such request shall not be deemed incompatible with these Terms and Conditions, nor a waiver of the right to have disputes submitted to arbitration as provided in these Terms and Conditions.

Neither you nor Grit and Nectar, Inc. may act as a class representative or private attorney general, nor participate as a member of a class of claimants, with respect to any Claim. Claims may not be arbitrated on a class or representative basis. The arbitrator can decide only your and/or Grit and Nectar, Inc.'s individual Claims. The arbitrator may not consolidate or join the claims of other persons or parties who may be similarly situated.

If any provision of this Section is found to be invalid or unenforceable, then that specific provision shall be of no force and effect and shall be severed, but the remainder of this Section shall continue in full force and effect. No waiver of any provision of this Section of the Terms and Conditions will be effective or enforceable unless recorded in a writing signed by the party waiving such a right or requirement. Such a waiver shall not waive or affect any other portion of this Terms and Conditions. This Section of the Terms and Conditions will survive the termination of your relationship with Grit and Nectar, Inc.

THIS SECTION LIMITS CERTAIN RIGHTS, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO MAINTAIN A COURT ACTION, THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL, THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY FORM OF CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE CLAIM, THE RIGHT TO ENGAGE IN DISCOVERY EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN AAA RULES, AND THE RIGHT TO CERTAIN REMEDIES AND FORMS OF RELIEF. OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU OR Grit and Nectar, INC. WOULD HAVE IN COURT ALSO MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE IN ARBITRATION.

Other Provisions

Any action relating to the use of the Web Site, mobile applications, catalogs or any transaction with Grit and Nectar, Inc. must be brought in the state or federal courts located in the County of San Francisco, California. You consent and submit to the personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purposes of any such action.

These Terms and Conditions will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to any conflict of laws rules or provisions.

Under no circumstances will we be held liable for any delay or failure in performance due in whole or in part to any acts of nature or other causes beyond our reasonable control.

If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is found to be unlawful or unenforceable, then that provision will be deemed severable from these Terms and Conditions and will not affect the enforceability of any other provisions.

The failure by us to enforce any right or provision of these Terms and Conditions will not prevent us from enforcing such right or provision in the future.

We may assign our rights and obligations under these Terms and Conditions, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, sale of assets or equity, or by operation of law.

Last Updated: March 2016

Accessibility

We strive to make our website content accessible and user-friendly. If you are having difficulty viewing the content on this website or navigating the site, please call our Customer Service Team at 562-430-1217.

Privacy Policy

We are part of the Grit and Nectar, Inc. We are committed to respecting your privacy and recognizing your need for appropriate protection and management of contact information you share with us (the phrase "contact information" means any information by which you can be contacted or personally identified, such as your name, mailing address, email address, telephone number, etc.). The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you what information we may collect from you, how we use such information, and the choices you have regarding our use of, and your ability to review, correct and opt out of our use of, the information. This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect about you in our stores and through our websites and mobile applications. By using any of our web sites, mobile applications, or sharing your contact information with us, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

As a part of our commitment to your privacy, Grit and Nectar, Inc. supports and adheres to the guidelines and practices adopted by the Direct Marketing Association's Privacy Promise to American Consumers. We have agreed to (1) provide customers with notice of their ability to opt out of information rental, sale, or exchange with other marketers; (2) honor customers' requests not to share their contact information with other marketers; and (3) honor customers' requests not to receive mail, telephone, or other solicitations from Grit and Nectar, Inc.

Collecting Information About You

There may be times (such as when you purchase or order a product, subscribe to a service, register to receive catalogs, or to participate in contests, sweepstakes or promotions, etc.) when we ask you to provide certain contact information about yourself, such as your name, shipping/billing address, telephone number, email address, social media user name, credit card information, birth date, gender, occupation, personal interests, and other information. We may collect information about your physical location. We may also maintain a record of your product purchases.

Whether or not to provide such information is completely your own choice. But if you choose not to provide the information we request, you may be unable to purchase products, or access certain services, offers and content on our web sites. In addition, we may need to contact you via phone, email or mail to address questions or issues specific to your order, entry, etc., even if you have opted to not receive marketing communications from us.

In general, you can visit many of our web pages without telling us who you are or revealing any contact information about yourself. We may track the Internet domain address from which people visit us, other electronic markers and identifiers and other information about our site and mobile app traffic. We may analyze this data for preferences, trends, site usage statistics and to recognize you. We may also receive usage data from your mobile phone or other device you use to access our web sites or our mobile applications, including location data, which we may also combine with other information.

If you access any of our websites or mobile applications with your log-in credentials from a social networking site (e.g., Facebook or twitter) or if you otherwise agree to associate your account with us with a social networking site, we may receive personal information about you from such social networking site, in accordance with the terms of use and privacy policy of the social networking site. We may add this information to the information we have already collected from you via our stores, websites and mobile applications.

Using Information About You

We use your contact information to provide you with the services you request as well as for analytical and marketing purposes, such as:

• confirming, sending, and tracking your order, subscription, or registration;

• communicating with you about your order, subscription, or registration;

• analyzing preferences, trends, and statistics;

• informing you of our new products, services, and offers; and

• providing you with other information from and about Grit and Nectar, Inc. Brands, including personalized marketing communications.

We contact you only in ways compatible with your communications choices. To the extent necessary for such purposes, we take reasonable steps to make sure that your contact information is accurate, complete, current, and otherwise reliable.

Our Select Partners

From time to time we might establish a business relationship with other persons or entities whom we believe trustworthy and whom we have asked to confirm that their privacy policies are consistent with ours. These are known as our Select Partners. In such cases we might rent, exchange, share and/or cross-reference information, including contact information about you that will enable such persons or entities to contact you regarding products and services that may be of interest to you.

To serve you better, we may combine information you give us online, in our stores or through our catalogs. We may also combine that information with publicly available information and information we receive from or cross-reference with our Select Partners and others, including providers of third party cookie and other third party browsing and use data. We use that combined information to enhance and personalize the shopping experience of you and others with us, and to recognize our customers so that we can communicate with you directly about our products and events that may be of interest to you, and for other promotional purposes.

Our Service Providers

We may contract with companies or persons to provide certain services including credit card processing, shipping, data analysis and management, promotional services, etc. We call them our Service Providers. We provide our Service Providers with the information needed for them to perform these services. We also ask our Service Providers to confirm that their privacy practices are consistent with ours.

Advertising and Online Tracking

We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain information when you visit our web sites. These companies may use information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) collected during your visits to this and other web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of interest to you. These companies may also tie identifiers associated with a particular browser or device to identifiers associated with other browsers or devices used by the same user or household (e.g., a device identifier associated with a user’s computer may be tied to the device identifiers of that user’s tablet and phone) in order to measure and target advertisements tailored to user interests across their devices and to send personalized marketing communications. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. Our systems do not recognize "Do Not Track" signals, but several of these third party companies who utilize these cookies or beacons on our web sites enable you to opt out of this behavioral advertising. To learn more or opt out from these companies you can visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices and www.aboutads.info/choices/. We also provide you with additional tools to opt out of marketing from us or certain transfers of your information. You can learn about this in the "Opting Out of Marketing and Transfers" section of this Privacy Policy.

Cookies

When you visit our web sites, we send one or more cookies to your computer or other device. We may also use cookies in emails that you receive from us. A cookie is a small data file that is placed on the hard drive of your computer when you visit a web site. A session cookie expires immediately when you end your session (i.e., close your browser). A persistent cookie stores information on the hard drive so when you end your session and return to the same web site at a later date the cookie information is still available. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service when you visit our web site and other web sites of interest to you. We also use cookies to remind us of who you are, tailor our products, services and advertising to suit the personal interests of you and others, estimate our audience size, assist our online merchants to track visits to and sales at our web sites and to process your order, track your status in our promotions, contests and sweepstakes, and/or analyze your visiting patterns.

Certain of our Service Providers may use cookies and collect information on our behalf. They are prohibited by our contract with them from sharing that information with anyone other than us or our other Service Providers. However, we respect your right to choose whether to be included in such services. You may opt out of certain of these services by clicking here. In addition, we or certain of our Service Providers, in connection with the services that they provide to us, may work with third parties who may use cookies to collect information to tailor advertising for you and others elsewhere on the Internet and on our web sites, and to assist in reminding us of who you are. If you would like to opt out of accepting cookies altogether, you can generally set your browser to not accept cookies or to notify you when you are sent a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it. However, certain features of our web sites or other services may not work if you delete or disable cookies.

We use Google Analytics on our web sites to collect usage data, to analyze how users use the web sites and to provide advertisements to you on other websites. For more information about how to opt out of having your information used by Google Analytics, visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

Security

We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect the confidentiality and security of information transmitted to us. To guard your information delivered to us electronically, our web sites use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). SSL encrypts your credit card number, name and address so only we are able to decode your information. Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your contact information, to the extent permitted by law, we do not guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to or from our web sites, and you do so at your own risk.

We urge you to keep any password that you establish with us in a safe place and not to divulge it to anyone. Also remember to log off your account and close your browser window when you have finished your visit. This is to ensure that others cannot access your account, especially if you are sharing a computer with someone else or are using a computer in a public place.

Protecting Children

Grit and Nectar, Inc. takes special care to protect the safety and privacy of children. Our web sites are general audience sites. We do not permit anyone under the age of 13 to register with us. We also do not send email correspondence to anyone who tells us that they are under the age of 13.

Children under the age of 13 should always ask their parents or guardians for permission before providing any contact information to anyone online. We urge parents and guardians to participate in their children's online activities and use parental control or other web filtering technology to supervise children's access to the Internet.

California users under the age of 18 may request the removal of their content or information publicly posted on web sites or mobile applications by sending us an email. Please note that most of the user content that appears on our Site or Services is stored and controlled by third party providers; thus, complete and comprehensive removal of the content may not be possible.

Links to Third Party Web Sites

Our web sites may contain links to web sites operated and maintained by third parties, over which we have no control. Privacy policies on such linked web sites may be different from our privacy policy. You access such linked web sites at your own risk. You should always read the privacy policy of a linked web site before disclosing any of your information on such web site.

Policy Changes

If we decide to change our privacy policy in whole or in part, we will inform you by posting a notice on our web sites, as applicable. Those changes will go into effect on the effective date posted in the notice and at the end of the revised Privacy Policy. The new policy will apply to all current and past users of our web sites and will replace any prior policies that are inconsistent. Your continued use of our web sites or other services constitutes your acceptance of the practices described in the revised Privacy Policy.

Your Feedback

To help us improve our privacy policy and practice, please give us your feedback. In the U.S., you can call us at 562-430-1217 or send us an email.

Legal Statement

All of the Content on this website is subject to copyright, trademark, service mark, trade dress and other intellectual property rights or licenses held by Grit and Nectar, Inc. Your use of the trademarks, service marks, trade dress and copyrighted material displayed on this website is strictly prohibited. You may download, print and store selected portions of the Content, provided you (1) only use these copies of the Content for your own personal, non-commercial use, (2) do not copy or post the Content on any network computer or broadcast the Content in any media, and (3) do not modify or alter the Content in any way, or delete or change any copyright or trademark notice. No right, title or interest in any downloaded materials is transferred to you as a result of any such downloading. Grit and Nectar, Inc. reserves complete title and full intellectual property rights in any Content you download from this Web site. Except as noted above, you may not copy, download, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, transmit, transfer or create derivative works from the Content. One or more patents may apply to this Web site, including without limitation, U.S. Patent Nos. 5,528,490; 5,761,649; and 6,029,142.