Skip to main content Skip to footer
Contact
Contact

Policies

Terms of Use

Last Updated: October 26th 2026

These Website Terms of Use (these “Terms”) govern your access to and use of the website located at https://teamrational.com/, including its webpages, content, forms, functionality, and other features (collectively, the “Website”).

The Website is operated by Rational, Inc., d/b/a Rational, and its affiliates (“Rational,” “Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us”).

Please read these Terms carefully. By accessing or using the Website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood these Terms and agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree to these Terms, you should not use the Website.

Accessibility. If you are having any trouble accessing these Terms or the Website, please email us at Privacy@teamrational.com.

1. ABOUT THE WEBSITE AND SCOPE OF THESE TERMS

Rational is a strategic communications and digital agency. Information on the Website may describe Rational’s capabilities and services, which may include public relations, public affairs, crisis and reputation communications, corporate communications, media relations, strategic counsel, research, content development, creative services, digital strategy, social media strategy, advertising, marketing, and related services (collectively, “Client Services”).

The Website is provided principally for promotional, informational, recruiting, thought-leadership, and business-development purposes. Rational does not provide Client Services through the Website itself.

These Terms govern your access to and use of the Website only. They do not constitute an agreement for Client Services.

Any Client Services provided by Rational will be governed by a separate written agreement, engagement letter, master services agreement, statement of work, insertion order, or other agreement between Rational and the applicable client (a “Client Agreement”).

If these Terms conflict with a Client Agreement, the Client Agreement will control with respect to Client Services, and these Terms will control with respect to use of the Website, unless the Client Agreement expressly provides otherwise.

2. ELIGIBILITY
 You may use the Website only if you are legally capable of entering into a binding agreement under applicable law.

The Website is intended primarily for business and professional audiences and is not directed to children.

If you access or use the Website on behalf of a company, organization, government entity, political organization, association, institution, or other entity, you represent that you have authority to act on its behalf with respect to your use of the Website.

3. NO CLIENT OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIP

Your access to or use of the Website does not create an agency-client, consultant-client, advisory, fiduciary, employment, partnership, joint venture, representative, or other professional or legal relationship between you and Rational.

Submitting a contact form, sending Rational an email, requesting information, participating in an introductory discussion, or otherwise communicating with Rational does not obligate Rational to accept an engagement, provide Client Services, or act on your behalf.

Rational will not be considered engaged to provide Client Services unless and until Rational expressly agrees to the engagement, typically through an executed Client Agreement or other written confirmation authorized by Rational.

No statement on the Website constitutes an offer or promise to provide Client Services on any particular terms.

4. CONFIDENTIAL AND SENSITIVE INFORMATION; PROSPECTIVE CLIENT INQUIRIES

DO NOT SEND CONFIDENTIAL, PRIVILEGED, EMBARGOED, PROPRIETARY, COMMERCIALLY SENSITIVE, SECURITY-SENSITIVE, CRISIS-RELATED, LEGALLY SENSITIVE, OR OTHER SENSITIVE INFORMATION THROUGH THE WEBSITE OR IN AN UNSOLICITED COMMUNICATION UNLESS COMPANY HAS EXPRESSLY AGREED IN WRITING TO RECEIVE THAT INFORMATION ON A CONFIDENTIAL BASIS.

Communications with Rational before an engagement or separate confidentiality agreement has been established should not be assumed to be confidential merely because you are seeking to retain Rational or discuss a potential engagement.

Without limiting Rational’s obligations under its Privacy Policy or applicable law regarding personal information:

  • An unsolicited communication does not establish a confidential, fiduciary, exclusive, or agency-client relationship;
  • Rational has no obligation to accept a proposed engagement;
  • Rational may already represent, advise, or communicate with organizations or persons whose interests, positions, industries, or objectives overlap with or differ from yours; and
  • Contacting Rational does not restrict Rational from accepting or continuing other engagements.

Submitting an inquiry also does not reserve Rational for you or your organization, establish exclusivity, create a conflict restriction, or prevent Rational from working with another person or organization. Any exclusivity, conflict, competitive-separation, or similar obligation must be expressly agreed to in writing by Rational.

If Rational agrees in writing to confidentiality obligations or accepts an engagement under a Client Agreement containing confidentiality terms, those written obligations will govern.

The Website and Rational’s general email addresses are not emergency, crisis-response, legally time-sensitive, regulatory-notice, litigation-notice, or other urgent communication channels. Rational does not guarantee that a communication submitted through the Website or sent to a general Rational email address will be received, reviewed, forwarded, or responded to within any particular period.

5. PRIVACY

Your use of the Website is subject to Rational’s Privacy Policy, available at Privacy Policy, which describes how Rational collects, uses, discloses, and otherwise processes personal information.

Rational maintains a separate Cookie Policy or Cookie Notice; that policy or notice may also apply to your use of the Website.

If you provide information through the Website, you represent that you have the right to provide that information to Rational.

6. PERMITTED USE

Subject to these Terms, Rational grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to access and use the Website and publicly available Website content for lawful personal, informational, and legitimate business purposes.

Access to the Website is generally provided without charge. The Website and its content have not been developed to meet the particular requirements, circumstances, or objectives of any individual user.

No ownership or other intellectual property rights are transferred to you through your use of the Website.

7. PROHIBITED USE; AUTOMATED ACCESS AND AI

You may not use the Website in violation of applicable law, these Terms, or in a manner that could damage Rational, its clients, its personnel, the Website, or another person.

Without limiting the foregoing, you may not:

  • Use the Website for any unlawful, fraudulent, deceptive, defamatory, harassing, malicious, or unauthorized purpose;
  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Website or any related account, system, server, database, network, or infrastructure;
  • Probe, scan, test, bypass, disable, or interfere with Website security, access controls, technological protection measures, or rate limits;
  • Introduce malicious code, viruses, worms, Trojan horses, logic bombs, or other harmful material, conduct a denial-of-service attack, or otherwise interfere with the security, operation, integrity, availability, rendering, or performance of the Website;
  • Impersonate Rational, a Rational employee or client, or any other person or entity, or falsely represent an affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, authority, or relationship;
  • Use the Website to transmit spam, unauthorized advertising, or other unsolicited communications;
  • Scrape, crawl, harvest, extract, index, copy, monitor, aggregate, or otherwise obtain Website content using bots, spiders, crawlers, scrapers, automated agents, or similar technologies, except as expressly authorized by Rational or ordinarily undertaken by generally available search engines in accordance with Rational’s technical instructions;
  • Use Website content for text or data mining, dataset or corpus creation, embeddings, vector databases, knowledge bases, retrieval systems, or similar repositories without Rational’s prior written consent, except to the extent such restriction is prohibited by applicable law;
  • Use Website content to train, fine-tune, ground, develop, test, benchmark, evaluate, or improve any artificial intelligence, machine-learning, generative, large-language, or other computational model or system without Rational’s prior written consent, except to the extent such restriction is prohibited by applicable law;
  • Reproduce, republish, distribute, sell, license, commercially exploit, or create derivative works from Website content except as expressly permitted by these Terms or applicable law;
     frame, mirror, or otherwise display a material portion of the Website as part of another website, application, platform, or service in a manner that misrepresents the source of the content or implies an unauthorized relationship with Rational;
  • Remove, alter, obscure, or falsify copyright, trademark, attribution, authorship, or proprietary-rights notices; or
  • Encourage, authorize, or assist another person to engage in conduct prohibited by these Terms.

To the extent applicable, these restrictions are intended to constitute an express reservation of Rational’s rights regarding automated access and text and data mining.

8. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Except where otherwise indicated, the Website and all materials made available through it—including text, articles, reports, research, data, photographs, graphics, illustrations, designs, logos, videos, audio, software, code, and the selection and arrangement of such materials (collectively, “Content”)—are owned by or licensed to Rational and are protected by applicable intellectual property laws.

You may view and, where functionality permits, print or download reasonable portions of publicly available Content for lawful informational use or internal business purposes (but not for resale, republication, or other commercial exploitation), provided that you:

  • Retain applicable copyright, trademark, authorship, attribution, and proprietary notices;
  • Do not modify the Content in a misleading manner;
  • Identify Rational and any identified contributor as the source where reasonable; and
  • Do not imply sponsorship, endorsement, affiliation, or approval by Rational where none exists.

Except as expressly permitted by these Terms or applicable law, you may not reproduce, distribute, publish, display, perform, modify, license, sell, exploit, or create derivative works from Content without Rational’s prior written consent.

If you use Content in violation of these Terms, your permission to use the affected Content terminates automatically, and Rational reserves all rights and remedies available at law or in equity.

9. TRADEMARKS; CLIENT AND THIRD-PARTY MARKS

Rational’s names, logos, trade names, service names, designs, slogans, and related marks are trademarks, service marks, or proprietary identifiers of Rational or its affiliates.

You may not use Rational’s marks without prior written consent or in a manner likely to create confusion regarding affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, origin, or approval.

You also may not use Rational’s names or marks in metatags, hidden text, metadata, domain names, paid-search keywords, or similar means designed to divert traffic, cause confusion, or imply an unauthorized relationship.

The Website may identify clients, former clients, media organizations, platforms, publications, awards, organizations, or other third parties and may display their names, logos, marks, or other identifying information. Those names and marks remain the property of their respective owners.

A reference to a client or other third party does not necessarily mean that the relationship is current, that the third party endorses Rational, or that Rational endorses every position, statement, product, service, or activity of that third party.

10. LINKING TO THE WEBSITE

You may link to publicly available pages of the Website if you do so in a fair and lawful manner that does not damage Rational’s reputation, misrepresent Rational or its Content, or imply an affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, approval, or authorization where none exists.

You may not frame the Website or otherwise display it as part of another website or service in a misleading manner.

Rational may withdraw linking permission at any time.

Reproduction, syndication, republication, or other use of Website Content beyond ordinary linking requires Rational’s prior written permission unless permitted by applicable law.

11. CASE STUDIES, CLIENT WORK, RESULTS, AND AWARDS

The Website may describe prior engagements, campaigns, strategies, media placements, metrics, awards, recognition, research findings, reputation outcomes, public-affairs outcomes, or other results.

These examples are provided for informational and illustrative purposes only.

Past performance, case studies, testimonials, awards, recognition, statistics, media coverage, or results do not guarantee that Rational will achieve the same or similar results in another engagement.

Communications outcomes may depend on factors outside Rational’s control, including factual circumstances, timing, the media environment, public sentiment, political and regulatory developments, platforms and algorithms, journalists, government actors, market conditions, competitors, clients, and third parties.

Nothing on the Website constitutes a promise, warranty, or guarantee of any particular business, media, reputational, public-affairs, legislative, regulatory, political, advocacy, digital, marketing, advertising, or other outcome.

12. GENERAL INFORMATION; NO PROFESSIONAL ADVICE

Website Content is provided for general informational purposes.

Rational may publish articles, insights, commentary, reports, research, presentations, thought leadership, public-affairs analysis, and other materials concerning media, government, public policy, communications, technology, business, marketing, reputation, culture, politics, or related subjects.

Such Content:

  • May be general in nature and may not address your specific circumstances;
  • May reflect information available only as of a particular date;
  • May become incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate as circumstances change; and
  • Should not be treated as a substitute for advice tailored to a particular situation.

Nothing on the Website constitutes legal, tax, accounting, investment, campaign-finance, lobbying-compliance, regulatory, or other regulated professional advice.

You should consult an appropriately qualified professional regarding specialized legal, regulatory, financial, tax, or compliance matters.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, views expressed by individual authors, speakers, contributors, or interviewees do not necessarily represent the views of Rational, every Rational employee, or any Rational client.

13. SUBMISSIONS AND FEEDBACK

The Website may allow you to submit inquiries, resumes, applications, information, materials, feedback, or other communications (“Submissions”).

You represent that you have the right to provide your Submission and that it does not knowingly infringe another person’s rights, violate a confidentiality or contractual obligation, contain unlawful or malicious material, or contain information that you know to be materially false or misleading.

You retain whatever ownership rights you may have in your Submission.

You grant Rational a non-exclusive right to receive, store, reproduce, transmit, review, evaluate, and otherwise use your Submission as reasonably necessary to respond to you, evaluate your request, administer the Website, consider a potential business or employment relationship, comply with law, protect Rational’s rights, and carry out the purpose for which you submitted it.

Rational does not wish to receive unsolicited proprietary campaign concepts, creative ideas, strategies, inventions, or business proposals through the Website. If you voluntarily provide general comments, recommendations, or feedback regarding Rational or the Website (“Feedback”), you grant Rational a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free right to use that Feedback for any lawful purpose without compensation or attribution.

The preceding Feedback license does not apply to information that Rational has expressly agreed in writing to receive subject to confidentiality obligations.

14. CAREERS

The Website may contain information regarding employment opportunities or permit applicants to submit resumes or other employment-related information.

A job posting does not constitute an offer or promise of employment. Rational may modify or withdraw a posting at any time, and submission of an application does not guarantee an interview, response, offer, or employment.

Any employment relationship will be governed by applicable employment documents, policies, and laws rather than these Terms.

15. THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES, PLATFORMS, AND CONTENT

The Website may contain links to, integrations with, or content from third-party websites, social media services, video platforms, recruiting platforms, news organizations, government entities, research providers, or other third parties.

Rational does not control and is not responsible for third-party websites, platforms, content, availability, security, privacy practices, terms, products, services, or conduct.

A link, integration, quotation, or reference does not necessarily constitute Rational’s endorsement, sponsorship, approval, or recommendation of the applicable third party.

Your use of third-party services is subject to the terms and privacy practices of those third parties.

16. WEBSITE SECURITY, AVAILABILITY, ACCURACY, AND CHANGES

Rational takes measures intended to support the security and integrity of the Website, but no website, network, transmission, or computer system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, private, available, or uninterrupted.

You are responsible for maintaining appropriate security protections for the devices, software, browsers, and networks you use to access the Website.

You may not test, probe, exploit, or circumvent Website security without Rational’s prior written authorization.

Rational may investigate suspected security incidents, fraud, unauthorized access, or unlawful Website activity and may cooperate with law enforcement, regulators, governmental authorities, service providers, or other appropriate parties as permitted or required by law.

Rational endeavors to provide useful and current information but does not warrant that Website Content is accurate, complete, current, or error-free. Information may become outdated as personnel, clients, services, technologies, laws, markets, political circumstances, or other conditions change.

Rational may modify, update, suspend, restrict, discontinue, remove, or change any portion of the Website or Content at any time.

17. COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CONCERNS

If you believe material appearing on the Website infringes copyright or other intellectual property rights that you own or are authorized to enforce, please contact Rational using the contact information in Section 25.

Your notice should identify the material at issue, its location on the Website, the rights you believe are being infringed, your contact information, and sufficient supporting information for Rational to evaluate your request.

Rational may remove or restrict access to material when it determines that doing so is appropriate.

Nothing in this Section represents that Rational qualifies for, has registered for, or is relying on a particular statutory safe harbor unless Rational has separately satisfied the applicable legal requirements.

18. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE WEBSITE AND ALL CONTENT, INFORMATION, MATERIALS, FEATURES, FUNCTIONALITY, AND LINKS MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH IT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, COMPANY AND ITS AFFILIATES, OWNERS, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, REPRESENTATIVES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS (COLLECTIVELY, THE “COMPANY PARTIES”) DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, AVAILABILITY, AND SECURITY.

Without limiting the foregoing, Rational does not warrant that the Website will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, free of harmful components, suitable for your particular needs, or that communications sent through the Website will be received or responded to within any particular period.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties. In those jurisdictions, these disclaimers apply only to the maximum extent permitted by law.

19. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE COMPANY PARTIES WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, BUSINESS, OPPORTUNITY, GOODWILL, REPUTATION, ANTICIPATED SAVINGS, OR DATA ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE WEBSITE, CONTENT, THESE TERMS, OR YOUR ACCESS TO, USE OF, RELIANCE ON, OR INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE THE WEBSITE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE COMPANY PARTIES FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE WEBSITE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT, IF ANY, YOU PAID DIRECTLY TO COMPANY SPECIFICALLY FOR ACCESS TO THE WEBSITE DURING THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM OR (B) US $100.

These limitations apply regardless of the theory of liability and do not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

20. INDEMNIFICATION

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Rational and its affiliates, owners, directors, officers, employees, contractors, representatives, agents, licensors, and service providers from and against claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or relating to:

  • Your unlawful or unauthorized use of the Website;
  • Your material violation of these Terms;
  • Your Submission;
  • Your violation of another person’s intellectual property, privacy, publicity, contractual, confidentiality, or other rights; or
  • Your fraudulent, malicious, or unlawful conduct in connection with the Website.

Rational may assume the exclusive defense and control of a matter otherwise subject to indemnification, in which case you agree to reasonably cooperate with Rational’s defense.

21. SUSPENSION AND ENFORCEMENT

Rational may restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to all or part of the Website if Rational reasonably believes you have violated these Terms, your use presents a security, legal, operational, or reputational risk, or restriction is otherwise reasonably necessary to protect Rational, its clients, its personnel, the Website, or another person.

Rational reserves all rights and remedies available at law or in equity with respect to unauthorized access to or use of the Website, Content, Rational’s intellectual property, or Website systems, including the right to seek appropriate injunctive or equitable relief.

Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive.

22. GOVERNING LAW AND VENUE

Except to the extent prohibited by applicable law, these Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Website will be governed by the laws of the District of Columbia, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles.

Except where applicable law requires otherwise, any lawsuit, action, or proceeding arising out of or relating to the Website or these Terms shall be brought exclusively in the courts of the District of Columbia or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

You and Rational consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts and waive objections based on improper venue or inconvenient forum to the fullest extent permitted by law.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any claim you assert arising out of or relating to the Website or these Terms must be brought within one (1) year after the claim first arose, or such claim is permanently barred. Each claim shall be brought and adjudicated individually, and you agree not to bring or participate in any class, collective, consolidated, or representative action against Rational.

23. CHANGES TO THESE TERMS

Rational may revise these Terms from time to time.

When Rational updates these Terms, it will post the revised version on the Website and update the “Last Updated” date above.

Changes will apply prospectively from the effective date of the revised Terms unless applicable law requires otherwise.

Your continued use of the Website after revised Terms become effective constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms to the extent permitted by applicable law. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you should discontinue use of the Website.

24. GENERAL

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any additional terms expressly applicable to a particular Website feature, constitute the entire agreement between you and Rational concerning your use of the Website. They do not supersede or modify a Client Agreement governing Client Services.

If any provision of these Terms is found unlawful, invalid, or unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law, and the remaining provisions will remain in effect.

Rational’s failure to exercise or enforce any right under these Terms does not waive that right.

You may not assign your rights or obligations under these Terms without Rational’s prior written consent. Rational may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, change of control, transfer to an affiliate or successor, or as otherwise permitted by law.

Except as expressly provided, these Terms do not create rights in any third-party beneficiary.

The Website is operated from the United States. Rational makes no representation that the Website or Content is appropriate or lawful for use in other jurisdictions, and if you access the Website from outside the United States, you are responsible for compliance with applicable local laws.

Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

25. CONTACT US

If you have questions about these Terms or the Website, you can contact us at Privacy@teamrational.com, (202) 470-4552, or via the following address:

Rational

1666 K Street NW

Washington, District of Columbia 20006

If you are having trouble accessing these Terms or the Website, including because of a disability, please contact us at Privacy@teamrational.com or (202) 470-4552.