The following General Terms and Conditions (Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen- AGB; the “T&C’s”) for the platform usage of ekipa GmbH, Kaiserstraße 56, 60329 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, govern the usasge of the website www.ekipa.de (Platform) and the associated services (Services), which in particular include participation in innovation projects (Challenges). The T&C’s are addressed to every individual using the Services (the Innovator; together Innovators).
Generally, Innovators by themselves as well as more than one Innovator acting as a group (Team) may participate in the specific Challenge (each individually participating INNOVATOR or a participating TEAM a PARTICIPANT).
The Challenge is divided into two individual phases. In the first phase, the PARTICIPANTS are given the opportunity to submit initial solutions (the Ideas) within a predetermined period (the Qualification Phase). The best PARTICIPANTS will then be given access to the second phase (the Elaboration Phase). In the Elaboration Phase, these PARTICIPANTS are given the opportunity to develop their Idea into a viable solution (the Solution) and must submit the Solutions by a certain deadline.
If the male form is chosen in the following text, this is only for reasons of legibility and not for discriminatory reasons. All information refers to members of all sexes.
“ELABORATION PHASE” has the meaning given in the preamble.
“CHALLENGE” has the meaning given in the preamble.
“CHALLENGE BRIEFING” means the description and conditions of participation of a Challenge defined with the customer, which is available to the Innovator online from the beginning of the Challenge.
“SUBMISSION” means the final digital upload of an Idea or Solution via the Platform until the end of the deadline of each phase of the Challenge.
“EKIPA” means ekipa GmbH, based in Frankfurt am Mai
“INVENTOR RIGHTS” means patent or utility model rights.
“WINNERS” are the Innovators or Teams who, upon completion of the Elaboration Phase, receive a prize based on the quality of their Solutions by the decision of the Customer.
“IDEA” has the meaning given in the preamble.
“INNOVATORS” has the meaning given in the preamble. If the respective Innovators take part in a challenge, they are referred to as PARTICIPANTS in the associated conditions of participation.
“CUSTOMERS” means the companies or organisations that put Challenges online on the Platform.
“SOLUTION” has the meaning given in the preamble.
“PLATFORM” has the meaning given in the preamble.
“QUALIFICATION PHASE” has the meaning given in the preamble.
“PROTECTED CONTENT” means all contents potentially protectable by special laws of intellectual property law (in particular copyright law, trademark law, design law, patent law, utility model law and design law).
“TEAM” has the meaning given in the preamble.
2.1. The contract on the use of the Platform between ekipa and the Innovator shall come into effect upon registration on the Platform and acceptance of the General Terms and Conditions (Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen – AGB; T&C’s).
2.2. Access to the Platform as well as usage of its Services is free of charge for innovators.
2.3. The registration by itself does not qualify as permission regarding the participation in Challenges.
2.4. Ekipa as well as its employees, its affiliated companies and employees of Customers are excluded from the Challenges.
3.1. The usage of the SERVICES requires a registration.
3.2. Subject to the following regulations, anyone can register on the PLATFORM and participate in CHALLENGES. A valid email address is required for registration.
3.3. Any data provided during the registration must be true and correct.
3.4. Each INNOVATOR may only register once and may use solelyone single account. In case of usage of more than one account, ekipa is entitled to delete all accounts except for one after consultating the concerned INNOVATOR. Above, ekipa is entitled to finally delete the affected INNOVATOR.
3.5. There is no legal title (Anspruch) for registration. ekipa may reject certain individuals without giving any reason.
3.6. In general, an INNOVATOR who wishes to register with ekipa must be of legal age. In exceptional cases, an INNOVATOR who is a minor but at least 16 years of age may also register with ekipa with the consent of his/her parents/guardians. In addition, it should be noted that for participation in certain projects on the ekipa platform, the respective conditions of participation apply and these must be additionally confirmed by the parents/guardians in each case. To obtain a template for the declaration of consent, please contact hello@ekipa.de.
4.1. ekipa aims to solve economic and social problems with the help of INNOVATORS and project-based Teams. For this purpose, ekipa provides various tools, features and possibilities for interaction. These include in particular the following core functions:
a. Innovator-Profiles: Innovators are given the opportunity to create and maintain their own profile.
b. Team-assembly-process: Innovators can join project-based Teams based on a specific Challenge. You can either create your own Team or join existing Teams based on your own profile. Existing Teams have to confirm the request of an Innovator. All Innovators and Teams have a platform-internal notification feed via which requests can be fed in and be processed.
c. A workspace for each PARTICIPANT: The workspace includes a communication channel/chat, a Team profile with notification feed, a collaboration channel with the ability to develop and share ideas and solutions, and an upload area that allows you to upload files and documents and submit them as Ideas or Solutions.
d. An essential part of the services is also to inform Innovators when Challenges are carried out which, based on the information available to ekipa, fit the respective interests and abilities of the Innovator. Part of this Service is the evaluation of all information of the Innovators available to ekipa. The Innovators hereby agree to be informed to a reasonable extent about their email address given in the profile. This can be contradicted in writing at any time.
4.2. ekipa stores the registration data specified in the respective profile. Optionally, further data can be entered by the user, e.g. a profile picture or information about one’s own abilities and knowledge. Selected data (name, picture, skills, evaluations) are made available to other Innovators and the respective Customers of a Challenge in the course of the team-assembly-process and the work in the Team.
4.3. ekipa will make every effort to ensure best possible accessibility to its Services meaning, that the functions are available at any time to all Innovators. A certain minimum availability (Mindestverfügbarkeit) is not owed and/or guaranteed. Temporary operational interruptions due to the usual maintenance work, system immanent disturbances with providers or network operators as well as for other technical reasons or in the case of force majeure (höhere Gewalt) are possible. The Innovators therefore have no legal title (Anspruch) to any uninterrupted, complete or trouble-free accessibility or usability of the SERVICES at any time.
4.4. ekipa continuously complements and expands its range of SERVICES. All new SERVICES are subject to these General Terms and Conditions.
General Information
5.1. Main scope of the platform is the execution of innovation projects in form of Challenges. These usually are carried out in form of a competition. Challenges are based on a concrete problem of a Customer. The aim of a Challenge is usually to develop Ideas and/or Solutions for the Customer.
5.2. Since Challenges are carried out based on a problem posed by the Customer, the underlying questions can be very different. Therefore, also the Challenges can run very differently. For this reason, each Challenge has its own descriptions and further conditions of participation in a Challenge Briefing. This contains further information on the Challenge process with concrete information, in particular on the timetable, the type of Challenge, the size of potential Teams, the required characteristics of the participants, submission format, evaluation criteria, number of PARTICIPANTS reaching the Elaboration Phase, decision-making boards, transfer of any rights of use or the amount and distribution of prizes. If the Challenge Briefing deviates from the provisions of these General Terms and Conditions (Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen), it shall apply with priority.
Procedure
5.3. Challenges usually consist of two phases. First there is a Qualification Phase (if necessary, with team composition) and then an Elaboration Phase. However, the concrete course of a Challenge can vary, so that there might be Challenges, in which only one of the aforementioned phases is concluded or additional phases are integrated. The periods of the phases and the specific procedure are set out in the Challenge Briefing.
5.4. Qualification Phase: Depending on the type of Challenge, generally every PARTICIPANT can participate in the Qualification Phase. The aim of this phase is to develop initial ideas based on the Challenge Briefing. The best PARTICIPANTS qualify for the Elaboration Phase based on their submission, which must take place within a certain deadline.
5.5. Elaboration Phase: Every qualified PARTICIPANT is given the opportunity during the Elaboration Phase to develop their Ideas into a more concrete Solution and to submit them by a certain deadline. After submission, the best Solutions and PARTICIPANTS will be selected as Winners.
5.6. The Teams will only be changed in exceptional cases and will remain in place until the Challenge is completed. Exceptions can be found in the Challenge Briefing or in the Conditions of Participation.
5.7. ekipa has the right to terminate a Challenge at any time and without notice, for example, if the Customer wishes to terminate the Challenge or because ekipa terminates its business (Einstellung des Geschäftsbetriebes). The potentially created, granted or transferred Protected Contents of Ideas or Solutions so far, shall in this case return to the respective Innovator or the respective Innovator of the Team.
5.8. The concrete submission format both in terms of content and technical nature for the Qualification Phase and the Elaboration Phase varies according to a Challenge. Basically, all digital standard formats such as DOC/ DOCX / PDF /PPT /PPTX /KEY /ODT /MP3 /MPEG /MOV /MP4 are supported. All further information can be found in the Challenge Briefing.
Winning a Challenge
5.9. In principle, all Ideas or Solutions submitted are free of charge. There is no legal title for compensation (Zahlungsanspruch) against ekipa or the respective Customers. If a PARTICIPANT is one of the Winners of a Challenge, they will receive a certain prize from ekipa or the Customer. This may include both cash prizes and other prizes. Prizes are always announced at the beginning of a Challenge and communicated in the Challenge Briefing. If a Team wins, the rewards are distributed evenly among the team members.
5.10. The decision on the qualifiers and Winners will be made at the judgement and discretion of the Customer. ekipa may act in an advisory role. Voting’s on the Platform or external juries could help as guidance for decision as well. The specific decision process is set out in the respective Challenge Briefing.
5.11. Please note that ekipa or the Customer will only be able to transfer the resulting prizes to the award-winning Innovators after the Innovators concerned have first transmitted all necessary data (in particular name, address and bank details) to ekipa or the Customer.
The transfer or granting of INVENTORIAL RIGHTS and any PROTECTED CONTENT to IDEAS and SOLUTIONS varies depending on the PROJECT. The conditions for the transfer or granting are regulated in the respective conditions of participation.
7.1. The Platform serves as well for interacting between Innovators, ekipa and the Customers. However, the following contents are prohibited:
a. Content that violates applicable law (geltendes Recht);
b. Defamatory, abusive, obscene, derogatory, pornographic, racist, hateful, violent, threatening, harassing, otherwise objectionable or illegal content;
c. Content that infringes any copyright, trademark or other proprietary right of any third party (Urheber- / Marken- / Schutzrechte Dritter);
d. Advertising or other commercial content;
e. Content that violates the right to privacy (Recht auf Privatsphäre) and the right to informational self-determination (Recht auf informationelle Selbstbestimmung).
7.2. INNOVATORS should act polite towards each other, ekipa and the CUSTOMER.
7.3. ekipa reserves the right to impose the following sanctions
a) Deletion of contributions and other contents;
b) Warnings of INNOVATORS;
c) Exclusion of INNOVATORS from certrain CHALLENGES;
d) Temporary blocking of INNOVATORS; and
e) in serious cases the final deletion of Innovators and the respective accounts.
8.1. The Innovator is obligated to create an account on the Platform in order to ensure a trouble-free exchange via the Platform.
8.2. The Innovator is obliged to fulfil the obligations laid down in these General Terms and Conditions, especially the observance of property rights of third parties (Schutzrechte Dritter).
9.1. The Innovator is obliged to indemnify ekipa from all claims of third parties upon first demand (Freistellungsanspruch), which they assert against ekipa, because the Innovator has culpably violated one of the obligations contained in these General Terms and Conditions.
9.2. The INNOVATOR is obliged to bear the reasonable costs for a legal defense of ekipa against the claims of third parties described under clause 9.1.
10.1. To the extent permitted by law, any liability of ekipa is excluded. ekipa is not legal liable regarding any violation of third parties’ rights as well as regarding the legality of the uploaded data at all by the Innovators.
10.2. ekipa is not liable for the non-availability of the system or malfunction of the system or individual functions, for the publication or deletion of data or for the actual identity of an Innovator.
10.3. Innovators’ legal titles against ekipa become suspended by the statute of limitations (Verjährung) within 18 months from the date on which they arise or from the beginning of the statutory limitation period.
11.1. The current privacy policy of ekipa, available at: www.ekipa.de/datenschutz is applicable.
11.2. The Innovators are not entitled to the unauthorized passing on of personal data, in particular not for commercial purposes.
11.3. ekipa reserves the right to delete personal data of Innovators
All trademarks and image rights as well as the entire content of the platform and services are protected by copyright or trademark law. Any reproduction or transmission requires the prior written consent of ekipa.
13.1. The contract terminates by the Innovator’s deletion of its account. This is possible at any time.
13.2. ekipa may terminate the contract in the event of a serious violation of these general terms and conditions or the conditions of a specific Challenge.
13.3. Above, the contract terminates by deactivation of the Platform. Beforehand, ekipa shall notify Innovators regarding the deactivation. All other legal relationships between ekipa and Innovators remain unaffected.
13.4. The Innovators have no legal title (Anspruch) regarding the Platform’s continuation or restoration of their account.
14.1. ekipa may change the General Terms and Conditions at any time without giving any reason. The Innovator will be informed in an appropriate form. The Innovator has the right to contradict the change. The contradiction can be submitted by email. In the event of an objection to the amended General Terms and Conditions, ekipa reserves the right to terminate the contract with immediate effect.
14.2. The new General Terms and Conditions are considered as agreed if the Innovator does not contradict their validity (Widerspruch) within 14 days after receiving the information. With the continued use of the account the Innovator agrees to the change.
15.1. The German text of the contract shall prevail. The purpose of the contract in English is merely to simplify reading but should not develop any legal meaning.
15.2. These general terms and conditions are exclusively subject to German law. The application of the UN Sales Convention is excluded.
15.3. Place of jurisdiction is Frankfurt am Main.
15.4. Should provisions of these General Terms and Conditions be or become invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, or should these General Terms and Conditions have one or more gaps, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected. Instead of the invalid, unenforceable or missing provisions, such a provision shall be deemed to have been agreed as the parties would have made it in accordance with the economic purpose pursued by them with this contract if they had considered the relevant point.
15.5. For the contracts the version in German language is decisive.
15.6. For potential queries or feedback, ekipa can be contacted at the following email address: hello@ekipa.de
