Contest Terms and Conditions

1. GENERAL

The "Pitch to China" 2014 Business Plan Contest is a competition for entrepreneurs interested in the China market to pitch their business ideas and plans for prizes and is part of the MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (MIT-CHIEF).

The Board of Directors, and Contest Team of the MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum, a student-led, faculty-advised group of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA, are collectively referred to as the “ORGANIZER” hereinafter.

The 2014 MIT-CHIEF Business Plan Contest ( the “CONTEST”) begins May 5, 2014 and culminates with a finale at the MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum Conference. Specific individual registration and submission deadlines are made available on the CONTEST official website. The ORGANIZER reserves the right to extend any deadline at any time. Should a deadline be extended, it will be announced on the official website and communicated to all participating teams by e-mail.

Information regarding entry procedure and prizes are described in this document (the “TERMS”). By submitting an entry, each entrant agrees to the TERMS stated herein and warrants that his or her entry complies with all requirements set out in the TERMS. This is a skill based contest and chance plays no part in the determination of winners. All entries are given the same consideration, with all contestants treated equally. The CONTEST does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, economic situation, or sexual orientation.

2. LANGUAGE

Where the ORGANIZER has provided you with a Chinese or other language translation of the original English language version of the TERMS or any other CONTEST information, including but not limited to the Chinese language version of the MIT-CHIEF website, you agree that the translation is provided for your convenience only, and that the English language version of the TERMS will govern your relationship with the ORGANIZER.

If there is any contradiction between the English language version of the TERMS and a translation of the TERMS, the English language version will take legal precedence.

3. ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS

By entering into the CONTEST you represent that you have full power, capacity and authority to accept these TERMS. If you are accepting on behalf of your team, employer, or another entity, you represent that you have full legal authority to bind your company, employer, team, or such entity to these TERMS. If you don't have the legal authority to bind, please ensure that an authorized person from your legal entity consents to and accepts these TERMS in written documentation.

The organizer reserves the right to make changes to the TERMS of this agreement at any time. In the event of a change in these TERMS, the ORGANIZER will announce the changes on the CONTEST official website. You understand and agree that your participation after the date on which the TERMS have changed indicates acceptance of the updated TERMS.

You agree that the ORGANIZER may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the TERMS, by email, regular mail, or postings on the CONTEST website. It is the responsibility of the participant to take notice of such information through the course of the CONTEST.

If any court of law that has jurisdiction, rules that any provision of these TERMS is invalid, then that provision will be removed from the TERMS without affecting the rest of the TERMS. The remaining provisions of the TERMS will continue to be valid and enforceable.

These TERMS constitute the whole legal agreement between you and the ORGANIZER in connection with, and govern your use of and participation in the CONTEST. These TERMS completely replace and supersede any prior agreements between you and the ORGANIZER, written or oral, in connection with the CONTEST.

4. PARTICIPATION

THIS CONTEST IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Entrants agree that this CONTEST shall be subject to and governed by the laws of the Massachusetts and the forum for any dispute shall be in Massachusetts, United States of America. To the extent permitted by law, the right to litigate, to seek injunctive relief or to make any other recourse to judicial or any other procedure in case of disputes or claims resulting from or on connection with this CONTEST are hereby excluded and any entrant expressly waives any and all such rights. Certain restrictions may apply. Entries are void if the ORGANIZER determines any team to violate these TERMS, do not meet the eligibility criteria, or if entries are illegible, incomplete, damaged, irregular, altered, produced in error, produced through illegal means, or contain violent, offensive, spam, or politically-sensitive content regarding US-China or MIT-China relations.

The MIT-CHIEF Contest Judges have sole and absolute discretion to determine which entries, if any, merit an award. If for any reason the Contest is not capable of running as planned, due to infection by computer virus, bugs, worms, trojan horses, denial of service attacks, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of the ORGANIZER that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this CONTEST, the ORGANIZER reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual(s) who tamper with the entry process, and/or to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the CONTEST.

The ORGANIZER reserves the right to request verification of the validity and originality of any submission, and verification of identity of any team member, and to disqualify and remove any entity who submits an entry that is not in accordance with these TERMS, the eligibility criteria stated on the website, or who tampers with the entry or judging process. Failure by the ORGANIZER to enforce any of its rights at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.

Failure of to execute and deliver any required documents to the ORGANIZER upon request by the specified deadline, at any stage of the CONTEST, may result in disqualification and removal from the CONTEST, and selection of alternate teams. Teams are required to respond to any official requests within 48 hours of receipt. NONCOMPLIANCE OR RETURN OF ANY OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION OR REQUEST FOR INFORMATION AS UNDELIVERABLE, WHETHER BY REGULAR MAIL OR BY EMAIL, MAY RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION FROM THE CONTEST.

5. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Teams can create businesses using technologies that they have permission to use. This could mean that they created the technology, that the patent or license is in their name, that a patent in their name is pending, or that they have the explicit (i.e. written) permission of the person or organization that owns the intellectual property. Any team that violates this requirement will be automatically disqualified from the contest. Before submitting entries, the ORGANIZER urges contestants to confirm with appropriate advisors or legal counsel that any intellectual property described in their summary is protected; i.e., by appropriate intellectual property filings, notices, (patent, copyright, etc) by the owning institution and/or individuals. The ORGANIZER also recommend that contestants determine in advance whether their summary describes a technology, invention, copyrightable work or other intellectual property owned by MIT in accordance with MIT Policy (see: http://web.mit.edu/policies/13.0.html). The MIT Technology Licensing Office is available to answer any related questions.

For any doubt about the legal status of contestants' own or third party intellectual property or any other aspect of their plan, the ORGANIZER advises to seek an independent legal counsel.

6. CONFIDENTIALITY

Access to submitted executive summaries and business plans is only granted by the ORGANIZER to the members of its judging panel. The MIT-CHIEF Board of Directors, the MIT-CHIEF IT team, and the Directors of the CONTEST are the only other individuals who may be provided access to the submitted executive summaries and business plans for organizational and event logistics purposes only. Reasonable steps are taken to limit access to submitted files.

The judges of the CONTEST are venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, professors, lawyers, and other industry professionals who are used to dealing with confidential material on a regular basis and will limit the use of executive summaries for contest judging purposes only. However, there will be no confidentiality obligation by any recipient of information which:

(a) is publicly available prior to the time of its disclosure to the MIT-CHIEF Business Plan Contest or becomes publicly available thereafter through no wrongful act of the recipient

(b) was known to the individual recipient prior to the date of disclosure or becomes known to the recipient thereafter from a third party having an apparent bona fide right to disclose the information

(c) is disclosed by recipient in accordance with your approval

(d) is disclosed by you or any member of your team without restriction on further disclosure

(e) is independently developed by a recipient; or

(f) the recipient is obligated to disclose to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or with a court or administrative order.

The identities of the contestants, the short description of the business disclosed in the registration, as well as any pitch delivered during any CONTEST event are considered of public domain and can be used by the ORGANIZER for marketing and PR purposes.

The ORGANIZER will not arbitrate any disputes over judges’ handling of entries. In addition, intra-team confidentiality is the sole responsibility of team members, and the ORGANIZER will not arbitrate any disputes that arise during the competition.

7. PRIZES

Prize payments will be distributed as follows:

Prize money won by any given team will be paid to a single individual on the winning team.

The individual recipients of prize money will be responsible for the tax implications of their winnings.

Teams may forfeit individual payments of prize money in favor of granting the full amount of the prize money to a registered business entity if, and only if, all of the following conditions are met:
(a) Team registered as a business entity prior to February 1, 2013.
(b) Team has a Federal Tax Identification Number (also known as an Employer ID Number) prior to February 1, 2013.
(c) All members of the team have agreed in writing to forfeit any individual portions of the prize money in favor of granting the full amount of the prize money to the registered business entity. We strongly recommend that teams seek legal consultation prior to signing such an agreement.

MIT faculty are not eligible to be the individual recipient of the prize money. However, they may participate on teams.

Prize payments will be reported as income of the individual recipient (or business entity) to the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and will be taxed up front in accordance with IRS regulations. We strongly recommend that teams seek taxation consultants regarding the related tax return reporting and filing.

8. PRESS

All teams may be required to participate in media and press opportunities related to the MIT-CHIEF Business Plan Contest. This includes, but is not limited to, the following opportunities:

(a) All teams are required upon registration to provide their team name, a short introduction, the names and affiliations of team participants, and a profile or logo image. This information may be made available to media and may be released publicly, either in part or in its entirety, both in print and in online media, without compensation or approval;

(b) All teams may be asked to speak to the media for contest related interviews when requested by the organizing committee. All teams may be asked to provide quotes and/or content for any contest related press releases. Participating in these types of opportunities in no way, shape or form requires teams to disclose any proprietary or otherwise confidential information related to their businesses. The ORGANIZER agrees to provide consultation to any team, upon request, to avoid such disclosures while participating in press related opportunities.

9. TERMINATION

You may terminate your legal agreement with the ORGANIZER and forfeit participation in the CONTEST, before the first submission deadline, by deleting your submitted documents.

The ORGANIZER reserves the right to terminate or disqualify contestants who violate the TERMS stated herein.

10. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

The ORGANIZER assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, or delay in operation or transmission; communications line failure; theft or destruction of or unauthorized access to submissions or entry forms; or alteration of entries or entry forms. ORGANIZER is not responsible for any problems with or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email communication to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, human errors of any kind, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to entrants' or any other persons' computers related to or resulting from participation, uploading or downloading of any materials related to in this CONTEST.

By entering the CONTEST, all entrants agree to release, discharge, and hold harmless the ORGANIZER and its team members, trustees, directors, officers, employees, students, judges, mentors, affiliates, sponsors, partners, and representatives from any claims, losses, and damages arising out of their participation in this CONTEST or any CONTEST-related activities and the acceptance and use, misuse, or possession of any prize awarded hereunder.

THE ORGANIZER AND MIT MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MIT-CHIEF BUSINESS PLAN CONTEST, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ORGANIZER OR MIT, ITS TRUSTEES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, STUDENTS, THE MIT-CHIEF BUSINESS PLAN CONTEST JUDGES, MENTORS, AFFILIATES, SPONSORS, PARTNERS, OR VOLUNTEERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY ADVICE, INFORMATION, OR DECISIONS MADE FOR OR ON BEHALF OF MIT OR THE ORGANIZER FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ECONOMIC DAMAGES, INJURY TO PERSONS OR PROPERTY, LOSS OF GOODWILL OR REPUTATION, AND LOST PROFITS (WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT), REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE ORGANIZER OR MIT SHALL BE ADVISED, HAVE OTHER REASON TO KNOW, OR SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF THE FOREGOING.

11. MISCELLANEOUS

You agree that you will not use the name of "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", "MIT-CHIEF", "MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum", or any variation, adaptation, or abbreviation thereof, or of any of the trustees, officers, faculty, students, employees, sponsors, partners, or agents of the aforementioned, or any trademark owned by or copyrighted to MIT, in any advertising or publicity without the written permission of the ORGANIZER and/or Director of the MIT News Office, as applicable.