Terms of Service

Local Kine Word Game · Local Kine Apps LLC, a Hawaii limited liability company
Effective October 21, 2026 · Last updated October 21, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Local Kine Word Game mobile application and all content, features, virtual items and services within it (the "Game"). Your licence to install and run the Game is governed by the separate End User License Agreement, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. Information handling is governed by our Privacy Policy.

1. Eligibility

The Game is rated 16+ and intended only for players sixteen (16) years of age or older. By using the Game you represent that you are at least 16 years old and, if you are under the age of majority where you live, that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf. We do not knowingly provide the Game to, or collect information from, children.

2. The Game, and changes to it

We may add, change, balance, suspend or remove any part of the Game at any time, including rules, features, dictionaries, pricing, earn rates, virtual items and game modes. We may discontinue the Game entirely. We are not required to provide notice, and we are not liable to you for any change, suspension or discontinuation, except as Section 7 provides for virtual items and as applicable law requires.

Game modes, turn timers, forfeits, scoring and abandonment outcomes operate as described in the Game's Help section, which may change. For online games, our servers determine game state, tile draws, word validation and scoring, and our records are final.

3. Intellectual property

3.1 What we own

The Game and its contents are owned by or licensed to Local Kine Apps LLC and protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret and other laws. This includes, without limitation:

• The names "Local Kine Word Game" and "Local Kine Apps," our logos, and the shaka mark
• The board design, bonus-square layout, and the "AK" / "Anykine" game mechanic
• Tile designs, themes, the letter distribution, and point values
• The compiled Hawaiian Pidgin, English and slang dictionary — including our selection of entries, our definitions, our alternate spellings and our example sentences
• The curated predetermined starting-word list
• All artwork, avatars, characters, emotes, sounds, music, text and software

You receive no ownership of any of it. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

3.2 Our dictionary compilation — what we claim and what we don't

We do not claim to own any individual word. Words belong to the people who speak them. We make no claim of ownership over the Hawaiian language, over Hawaiian Pidgin, or over any word in common usage.

What we do claim is our compilation. The particular selection of entries, the editorial decisions about which spellings and variants to include, the definitions we wrote, the example sentences we wrote, and the organisation of the whole constitute an original compilation created through substantial independent effort, protected as a compilation under United States copyright law and maintained by us as confidential and proprietary information and a trade secret.

Accordingly, the prohibitions in Section 4 on extracting, copying, scraping or republishing the Game's word lists, definitions or data are material terms of this agreement, and we will enforce them.

3.3 Hawaiian language source acknowledgment

The Hawaiian-language words and definitions in the Game derive from public-domain reference works, including A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language and Library of Congress English-Hawaiian dictionary materials. We do not claim ownership of those source words or definitions, or of the Hawaiian language. Hawaiian words appear in the Game without the ʻokina and kahakō for gameplay reasons. Their inclusion is for gameplay and entertainment, offered with respect and aloha.

3.4 Feedback

If you send us ideas, suggestions or feedback about the Game (other than word suggestions, which Section 6.3 covers), you grant us an unrestricted, irrevocable, royalty-free right to use them for any purpose without compensation, attribution or obligation of confidentiality.

4. Prohibited conduct

You will not, and will not permit or help anyone else to:

• (a) Extract or copy our data. Copy, reproduce, extract, scrape, harvest, mine, index, republish, distribute or create derivative works from the Game's dictionary, word lists, definitions, example sentences, alternate spellings, starting-word list, letter distribution, point values or any other Game content or data, in whole or in part, by any means, whether manual or automated.
• (b) Train artificial intelligence on it. Use any part of the Game or its content to train, fine-tune, develop, evaluate, benchmark or improve any machine-learning model, large language model, or generative artificial intelligence system or tool. This is expressly prohibited.
• (c) Reverse engineer it. Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, decrypt, unpack, extract assets from, or otherwise attempt to discover the source code, data files, algorithms, data structures or trade secrets of the Game, except to the narrow extent applicable law expressly permits notwithstanding this restriction.
• (d) Tamper with it. Modify, adapt, translate, repackage, rehost or redistribute the Game; remove or alter proprietary notices; or circumvent, disable or interfere with any security, integrity, licensing or technical protection measure.
• (e) Automate or cheat. Use bots, scripts, macros, emulators used to gain advantage, automation, word solvers, cheat software, modified clients or unauthorised third-party tools to play or interact with the Game; exploit bugs or errors; manipulate device clocks, network connectivity or store receipts; or farm, duplicate or otherwise obtain Gold Coins or virtual items other than as the Game intends.
• (f) Compete using our work. Use the Game, its content, or anything derived from it to design, develop or market a competing product or service.
• (g) Commercialise it. Sell, resell, rent, lease, license, sublicense or otherwise commercially exploit the Game, access to it, or any virtual items or currency, including selling or transferring accounts.
• (h) Abuse other players or the service. Harass, threaten, stalk, defraud or impersonate anyone; interfere with others' use of the Game; attempt to gain unauthorised access to any account, server or system; or transmit malware.
• (i) Break the law, or use the Game in violation of any applicable law, regulation or sanctions programme.

We may use technical measures to detect violations, and we may investigate, remove content, and warn, mute, suspend or permanently ban accounts at our discretion. Violation of subsections (a), (b), (c) or (f) causes us harm that money may not adequately remedy, and we may seek injunctive relief in addition to any other remedy.

5. Accounts and guest play

Guest play. The Game can be played without an account. Guest progress is stored only on your device. If you delete the Game, change devices, or your device is lost or damaged, that progress is gone and we cannot restore it. We are not liable for loss of unsynced progress.

Accounts. Where accounts are available: you are responsible for your credentials and for all activity under your account; your information must be accurate; you may not share, sell or transfer your account; and usernames must not be offensive, infringing, deceptive or impersonating, and we may reclaim or rename any username that violates this. You may delete your account in-app. Deletion is permanent and forfeits all Gold Coins and virtual items (Section 7(e)).

6. User content, chat and word suggestions

6.1 Your content

"User Content" means anything you submit, transmit or display in the Game, including chat messages, usernames, player names, avatar selections and word suggestions. You keep ownership of your User Content. You grant Local Kine Apps LLC a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, sublicensable, transferable, irrevocable licence — for the full duration of any rights in it — to host, store, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, display and otherwise use your User Content in connection with operating, improving, moderating and promoting the Game. You represent that you have the rights necessary to grant this.

6.2 Chat and conduct

The Game does not permit photo, image, video or file uploads of any kind. Chat is text only.

You will not post or transmit content that is unlawful, harassing, bullying, threatening, hateful, defamatory, sexually explicit, exploitative of minors, infringing, fraudulent or spam, or that discloses any person's private information.

A profanity filter is provided in Settings and is on by default. The Game's dictionary intentionally contains crude and potentially offensive words (Section 9); by playing you accept that you may encounter them. We provide Report and Mute tools. We are not obligated to monitor chat, but we may review reported content and act on it at our discretion. We are not responsible for User Content created by other players.

6.3 Word suggestions — please read this one

If you submit a word, spelling, definition or example sentence through the Suggest-a-Word feature or by any other means, you irrevocably grant us the royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide right to use, edit, adapt and incorporate it into the Game's dictionaries and content permanently, without attribution, compensation or any obligation to you, and you waive any right to object to our use of it. You represent that your submission is your own or is not subject to anyone else's rights. Do not submit anything you are not free to give us, and do not include personal information. We are not obligated to add, keep or respond to any submission.

7. Gold Coins and virtual items

(a) Gold Coins, power-ups, tile themes, avatars, emotes and all other virtual items (together, "Virtual Items") are licensed to you, not sold. You have a limited, personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to use them inside the Game. They are not your property.

(b) Virtual Items have no monetary value. They are not money, not credit, not a stored-value instrument and not property. They cannot be redeemed for cash or anything of value outside the Game, cannot be transferred or gifted between accounts or players, cannot be sold or traded, and may not be wagered or used for gambling of any kind.

(c) We may create, modify, revalue, reprice, limit or discontinue any Virtual Item or the rates at which Coins are earned or spent, at any time, without compensating you.

(d) All purchases are final. Except where law or the Apple App Store or Google Play policies require otherwise, Virtual Item purchases are non-refundable. Refund requests for store purchases must go to Apple or Google under their policies — we cannot issue store refunds.

(e) If you delete your account, if we suspend or terminate your access, or if the Game is discontinued, all unused Gold Coins and Virtual Items are forfeited without refund or compensation.

8. Purchases, subscriptions and advertising

Store processing. All in-app purchases and subscriptions are processed by Apple or Google, whose terms also apply. We do not receive or store your payment-card details.

Subscriptions auto-renew at the then-current price until you cancel through your store account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. No pro-rated refunds except where law or store policy requires. Manage or cancel in your Apple ID or Google Play subscription settings — not in the Game. Price changes take effect as the store requires, with the notice the store provides.

Restore Purchases is available in the Market for non-consumable items on the same store account.

Advertising. The free version of the Game is supported by third-party advertising. We do not control, review or endorse the content of ads, the advertisers, or the sites and apps they lead to, and we are not responsible for them. Advertising involves data collection described in our Privacy Policy. Where offered, you may remove ads by purchase.

9. Dictionary and cultural content disclaimer

The Game's dictionary compiles words from the Hawaiian language, Hawaiian Pidgin, English and popular slang, including informal usage, alternate spellings, acronyms, and terms that are crude, vulgar, sexual, derogatory, or that some players will find offensive. We did not invent these words. They are compiled because they exist and are spoken, so they can be played in a word game.

Definitions are gameplay reference only. They may be incomplete, imprecise, regional, or simply wrong. They are not linguistic, educational, academic or cultural authority of any kind.

The Game is not a Hawaiian language dictionary and must not be used as one, or as a substitute for Hawaiian language education or for consultation with Hawaiian language speakers, teachers or scholars. Hawaiian words appear without the ʻokina and kahakō for gameplay reasons, which changes and in some cases obscures their meaning.

Inclusion of a word is not endorsement of it, of its meaning, or of its use. We make no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness, inoffensiveness or appropriateness of any word, definition or example sentence. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all liability for offence taken, for reliance placed on any definition, and for any interpretation of any dictionary content.

If you believe a word or definition is genuinely harmful or wrong, tell us at [email protected]. We read these and we do make changes, at our discretion.

10. Third-party services

The Game relies on services we do not control, including the Apple App Store, Google Play, advertising networks and sign-in providers. We are not responsible for their acts, omissions, outages, pricing or policies. Your use of them is governed by their terms.

11. Suspension and termination

By you. Stop playing and delete the Game at any time.

By us. We may suspend or terminate your licence, access or account at any time — with or without notice — for violation of these Terms or the EULA, cheating, abusive conduct, fraud, chargebacks, unlawful activity, or where reasonably necessary to protect the Game, other players or us.

On termination: your licence ends immediately, you must stop using and delete the Game, and Virtual Items are forfeited under Section 7(e). Sections 3, 4, 6.1, 6.3, 7(b), 7(e), 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 survive termination.

12. Disclaimer of warranties

THE GAME IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, LOCAL KINE APPS LLC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED AND STATUTORY, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE GAME WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE; THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED; THAT THE GAME IS FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS; THAT ANY DICTIONARY CONTENT IS ACCURATE; OR THAT GAME PROGRESS, STATISTICS, STREAKS, GOLD COINS OR VIRTUAL ITEMS WILL NOT BE LOST.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

13. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, LOCAL KINE APPS LLC AND ITS MEMBERS, MANAGERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, GAME PROGRESS, STATISTICS, GOLD COINS OR VIRTUAL ITEMS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE GAME, ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.

OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE GAME WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE GAME IN THE TWENTY-FOUR (24) MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS (US $100).

THESE LIMITS APPLY EVEN IF A REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you, and nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including for fraud, wilful misconduct, gross negligence, or death or personal injury caused by negligence.

14. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless Local Kine Apps LLC and its members, managers, officers, employees, contractors and agents from and against all claims, demands, damages, losses, liabilities, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: your User Content; your use or misuse of the Game; your violation of these Terms, the EULA or any law; your infringement of any third party's rights; or your conduct toward another player. We may assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, at your expense, and you will cooperate with us.

15. Governing law

These Terms and any dispute arising out of them or the Game are governed by the laws of the State of Hawaii, excluding its conflict-of-laws rules, and by applicable United States federal law. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

16. Dispute resolution

Informal resolution first. Before starting any formal proceeding, you agree to contact us at [email protected] with a written description of the dispute and to attempt in good faith to resolve it for forty-five (45) days. This is a condition precedent to any formal proceeding, and the limitations period is tolled while it runs.

Venue. Any dispute not resolved informally must be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Honolulu, Hawaii, and you and we consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there.

Time limit. Any claim must be brought within one (1) year after it arises, or it is permanently barred, except where applicable law prohibits shortening the period.

17. Apple and Google

These Terms are between you and Local Kine Apps LLC only — not with Apple Inc. or Google LLC. Apple and Google are not responsible for the Game or its content and have no obligation to provide maintenance or support. Apple and Google, and their subsidiaries, are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and of the EULA and may enforce them against you. Your use must also comply with the applicable store's terms. Further Apple-specific terms, including warranty, product claims and IP-claim responsibility, appear in the EULA.

18. Copyright complaints

If you believe content in the Game infringes your copyright, send a notice containing the information required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) to our designated agent at [email protected]. We may remove content and terminate repeat infringers.

19. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. For material changes we will update the "Last updated" date and give notice in the Game or by other reasonable means. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If you do not accept a change, stop using the Game and delete it. The current version is always available at this address and from the Game's Help section.

20. General

Entire agreement. These Terms, the EULA and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about the Game and supersede any prior understandings.

Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the rest remains in full force.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account. We may assign them freely, including in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets.

Force majeure. We are not liable for any failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

No agency. Nothing here creates a partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship.

Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

Contact

Local Kine Apps LLC
[email protected]