|
GENERAL PROVISIONS
The concept of The Innovative Technologies Contest “IDEAS – TO LIFE!” (hereinafter “the Contest”) is to consolidate scientific and technical potential of Ukrainian inventors with national and foreign investments and bankroll, develop intergovernmental relations in high-tech area, stimulate inventive process and promote science intensive technologies and developments to national and foreign markets. The Contest is intended to ensure the selection of the most technically advanced and commercially attractive innovative ideas and projects (the Entry) which will be financed (in addition to the award or incentive bonuses), assisted in application to production and further promotion in the market.
As the Selection procedure is in progress, the Bank of Ideas and Projects shall be created, arranged and supported and made available to national and foreign investors (investment companies, banks, industrial and innovative enterprises).That's why any innovative idea or project being registered as a contest proposal has a good chance to be discovered by potential investor.
Contest objective
The Contest is held to attract capital investment to the market of hi-tech and science intensive technologies; reveal and promote ideas and projects most effective for investing in; enhance the prestige of the domestic school of thought; develop the international scientific and technological ties; encourage the most talented inventors and developers of hi-tech products; raise activity of scientists, research-and-technical and engineering employees, inventors, gifted youth; provide potential investors with available and detailed information about advanced projects.
Subject of the Contest
Should the innovative ideas and projects be acceptable they must be novel, contain a sufficient “inventive step” (be non-obvious), be attractive for investment and be potentially applicable to production.
The following types of Entries shall be applicable for the Contest:
- Innovative idea – a project at the earliest (seed) stages of development without a prototype and requiring considerable research and development work (including projects which may require heavy investments and long term application (10-20 years));
- Innovative project – a project at the final stage of research and development; a prototype and commercialization strategy are available.
- Innovative technology – an actualized project resulted in a new output (product, service, process, method etc.) which has found a market, in case the owners of intellectual property rights are looking for the most profitable sale conditions of their technology or promotion to the foreign markets.
The Entrants choose the type of the Entry by themselves.
The following categories are established for the Entries:
- Computer software
- Computer hardware
- Internet and networks
- Computer (information) security
- Telecommunications (mobile and non-mobile technologies)
As new Entries are submitted to the Contest, the Organizer of the Contest may establish additional categories.
The Entrants determine relationship of their Entries to particular scientific area by themselves.
The projects which have been awarded at previous selections of the Contest shall not be accepted.
The participation in the Contest is free.
Entrants
The Contest may be entered by teams from a higher education establishments or scientific and technical organization as well as by individuals who are at least 16 years of age.
The quantity of Entries submitted by one inventor or one team is not subject to limit. There shall be filled a separate form for each Entry.
The quantity of Entrants is not subject to limit.
Organizer and Partners of the Contest
The Contest is organized by International Charitable Foundation Technobridge (hereinafter “the Organizer”) under support of the State Research Institute of Intellectual Property of the Academy of Law Sciences of Ukraine, Ukrainian Center for Innovations and Patent Information Services, Association “Ukrinterstandart”, the Center of Small Business Development "Kharkov Technologies" in cooperation with public associations, banks, investment companies, industrial enterprises and mass media concerned.
The main bodies of the Contest
The Organizing Committee (the Committee) of the Contest
The Contest is being prepared and held by the Committee.
The responsibilities of the Committee are the following:
- Promotion of the Contest (advertising, PR etc.);
- Drafting of the Contest documentation; provision of consultations on filling application forms;
- Reception and registration of the Entries submitted to the Contest;
- Verification of the Entries in accordance with the Contest terms and rules (formal selection);
- Provision of technical examination of the Entries under the established criteria;
- Systematization of the Expert Council’s decisions; approving of the list of Entries admitted to the next stage of the Contest;
- Provision of commercial examination of the Entries;
- Systematization of the Corporate Council’s decisions;
- Coordinating of the Entries at all stages of the contest selection;
- Preparation of resulting documents of the Contest;
- Arrangement of the Awarding Ceremony of the Contest;
- Management of cooperation with enterprises, organizations, institutions and governmental bodies concerned;
- Notification of the Entrants about the results of technical and commercial examination of the Entries;
- Arrangement of presentations of the Entries;
- Execution of other functions necessary for preparing and holding the Contest.
The Committee shall not comment on the decisions of the Expert and Corporate Councils concerning participation of Entries in the next stage of the Contest or awarding the Entries.
Submitted and registered materials will not be returned.
The Expert Council
The Expert Council is to make a technical examination of the Entries.
The members of the Expert Council are scientists and experts in different branches of science, technique and technology, scientific elite representing all branches concerning the categories of the Contest.
The list of members of the Expert Council shall be published on the official website of the Contest.
The Expert Council consists of expert commissions (with at least of 2 experts each) according to the nominations of the Contest (categories of the entries). While examining the Entries each expert acts independently from another.
The decisions of expert commissions concerning submitted Entries shall not be subject to dispute.
A member of expert commission who has personal interest in the results of examination is ineligible.
The Corporate Council
The Corporate Council is to make commercial examination of the Entries and determine their investment potential, marketability, the outlook for industrial application and market requirement.
The members of the Corporate Council are representatives of investment companies, banks, professionals in economical expertise and venturing; industrial and innovative companies, non-residents which originally create demand and supply in the world market of hi-tech, experienced and financially capable to promote further innovative projects i.e., potential buyers of ideas, projects and technologies.
The decisions of the Corporate Council shall not be subject to appeal.
The procedure of the Contest
The Contest shall be held in three stages. The results of each stage shall be published on the official website of the Contest.
A call-center shall be created to provide potential and participating Entrants with necessary information concerning the terms and rules of the participation in the Contest, stages of Entries’ consideration.
The First Stage. Reception and registration of applications, classification and initial selection under formal criteria of the Contest (including accuracy of the filled forms, fullness and completeness of submitted documentation; reliability of data provided with documents; results of patent search in Ukraine etc.)
The Applications are accepted starting from the date the Contest is announced in mass media.
To enter the Contest the Entrants shall submit:
- The Application (attached hereto).
- The Questionnaire (attached hereto).
- The Description of the Entry (approximate form attached hereto).
- Copies of protection certificates (or decisions of issue) to the objects of intellectual property (patents, utility models, certificates etc.).
- Copies of protection certificates issued abroad with full description (if any).
- Finance plan (calculation) of recoupment of the Entry.
- Marketing analysis.
- Comparative analysis with analogues.
- Copies of the first pages of license agreements.
- Copies of the first pages of know-how agreements.
- Additional documents referred to in the Description of the Entry.
The Entrant may file any other documents showing the advantages of the Entry.
The lack of one or several documents specified in §§ 4-11 shall not be considered as incompleteness of the Entry though may influence the appraisal.
Every Application shall be supplied with a separate set of documents.
The Entries shall be submitted on behalf of the direct inventors (inventors’ teams), owners of patents.
The Entries shall be submitted by following means:
- filling the Application directly on the official website of the Contest and attaching other documents from the list thereto; Scanned copies of documents containing signatures and seals are acceptable.
- registered letter sent to postal address of the Organizing Committee.
In any case the Entrant shall be formally notified of the reception and registration of submitted Applications by the contact information provided for.
The Entrants may become acquainted with the list of registered Entries on the official website.
The Entries will be accepted and registered within the period of 4 months from the date the beginning of the Contest has been announced.
On the expiry of the abovementioned period the Entries shall be delivered to the Expert Council and subsequently to the Corporate Council for further consideration. The Organizing Committee must provide the Applicant with information about the stage of consideration of his/her/their Entry and by his/her/their request.
The Entries submitted after the expiration of the mentioned period shall not be rejected. Instead the consideration of such Entries by the Expert and Corporate Councils shall be deferred until the next session begins.
Both the Expert Council shall be in session twice a year. The Corporate Council shall be in session twice a year either. Date of session of the Expert Council is to be determined by the Organizing Committee and published on the official website of the Contest.
In case of submitting particularly interesting and commercially attractive Entries the Organizing Committee may call an extraordinary session.
The Second Stage. Technical examination and evaluation of the Entry.
Technical examination shall be conducted by expert commissions according to the Contest nominations (categories of the entries).
The expert commissions evaluating the Entries shall use the following criteria but not be confined to them: the novelty and singularity of technical decision, inventive step, industrial applicability, other descriptive adjectives of the Entry, the stage of development, availability of patents, utility models etc. Evaluation criteria shall be published by the Organizing Committee on the official website of the Contest.
The Entries successfully passed the stage of examination and evaluation by the Expert Council shall be delivered by the Committee to the Corporate Council for further consideration.
The Entrants whose Entries successfully passed the present stage shall be awarded with the Diploma of the Contest regardless of the next stage results.
The Third Stage. Commercial examination of the Entry.
The commercial examination shall be conducted by the Corporate Council. The Corporate Council shall make a selection of Entries following the criteria of financial attractiveness, market demand and taking into consideration willingness of investors (industrialists, entrepreneurs, financial and other companies) to bankroll such innovative projects (ideas).
The Entries selected by the Corporate Council shall be commercialized and promoted to the market.
The Corporate Council shall have the right to request the Organizing Committee to pass any Entry for consideration even though such an Entry failed to receive positive appraisal at the stage of technical examination and revise the Expert Council’s decision.
The decision of the Corporate Council and the list of the winning Entries contained therein are peremptory and shall not be subject to appeal.
At the stage of commercial examination the decision to finance (to develop, to apply to production) the Entry is made.
The Organizing Committee on its own initiative or by the demand of the Expert or Corporate Councils may request the Entrants to submit additional information and/or documents concerning the Entry necessary for comprehensive and objective analysis. If that's the case the Entrant shall provide the requested information which is subject to conditions stipulated in Section “Information disclosure” within the time fixed by the Organizing Committee.
Both the Expert and the Corporate Councils may return the Entry to the Entrant for revision giving corresponding recommendations. The updated Entries along with adjusted Application and Questionnaire with appropriate mark may be submitted to the Organizing Committee and shall be considered under the established procedure.
The Entrant may be invited at the expenses of the Organizing Committee to present his/her/their Entry in person.
The Organizing Committee shall be liable for safety of submitted documents and materials (Entries).
Renunciation of participation in the Contest
The Applicant shall have the right to leave the Contest and withdraw his/her/their Entry at any stage of the Contest selection before signing of a preliminary agreement (in case any certificates of protection are unavailable) or a license agreement (if there are any certificates of protection) pursuant to the terms of Section “License and other agreements and contracts”.
The Organizing Committee shall have the right to refuse the Applicant to enter the Contest in case that:
- The Entry applied for the Contest has been already awarded at the previous selections;
- The documents submitted along with the Application contain false data (including terms of validity of license agreements and rights transferred to third parties under them);
- The Entrant failed to submit the documents stipulated in points 1, 2 and 3 of Section “Procedure of the Contest”;
- The Entrant does not comply with the request of the Organizing Committee to submit additional information and documents necessary for its recognition, analysis and consideration or failed to do it within the stated limit of time;
- The exclusive license to the Entry and/or its output have been issued to a third party and the validity term of the License agreement expires in more than three months from the date of the beginning of the Contest. If the License agreement expires within three months from the abovementioned date the Entry shall be considered acceptable.
PRIZE FUND OF THE CONTEST
The Prize Fund totals 50 000 (fifty thousand) U.S. Dollars.
Prizes shall be awarded in accordance with the following specifications:
One (1) First Prize of value 10,000 (ten thousand) U.S. dollars will be awarded to the Winner of the Contest.
One (1) Second Prize of value 5000 (five thousand) U.S. will be awarded to the Finalist determined second in the Contest.
The Winning Entries shall be considered those awarded First and the Second Prizes.
The Corporate Council shall also determine up to 35 runner-up Finalists granted an incentive bonus of 1000 (one thousand) U.S. dollars each.
The Corporate Council by the results of Entries’ consideration shall enjoy the right to increase the quantity of incentive bonuses.
Awarding procedure
The Organizing Committee shall present a report which specifies names of the winners and the Winning Entries as the result of their examination by the Corporate Council. The report shall be approved by the Organizer of the Contest.
Each Entrant shall be notified of the results of his/her/their participation in the Contest.
The information about the results of the Contest selection and the winning Entries shall be published on the official website of the Contest.
There shall be no award in case that none of the Entries comply with the terms of the Contest and/or requirements to the Entries, or none of the Entries is approved by the Expert or Corporate Councils.
If that's the case the Organizing Committee shall publish a repudiation to award the prizes.
Resignation of awarding the prizes shall not be construed as repudiation to grant incentive bonuses.
Remuneration
The Applicant shall be awarded the prize under condition that he/she/they sign a preliminary agreement or License agreement under the terms stipulated in Section “License agreements and other contracts”.
INFORMATION DISCLOSURE
The Winner shall provide the Organizing Committee with complete and reliable information about his/her Entry to confirm the output specified in contest documentation (the Application, Questionnaire, Description).
Such information is provided for dissemination under the Agreement of Non-disclosure with a view to guarantee nondisclosure and non-using of information submitted by the Entrants without his/her/their consent.
Conclusion of the Agreement of Non-disclosure may be requested by the Organizing Committee at the stages of technical and/or commercial examination.
LICENSE AGREEMENTS AND OTHER CONTRACTS
ATTENTION!
The Applicant’s consent to transfer irrevocable and fully paid-up exclusive license of the Entry and its output in all territories of the World is compulsory for getting the prize. That should be executed in a proper way envisaged by law.
In case the intellectual property rights to the Entry and/or its output are not registered as it is required by law though the whole project is fully completed and meets all the criteria of patentability or other criteria required by law the Organizing Committee facilitates such Entrant in registration of the IPR to his/her Entry and its output. Whereupon the Entrant shall transfer under duly procedure the irrevocable exclusive license to his/her Entry and its output valid in all countries of the World. Thus, the authorship is assigned to the author of the Entry in any case.
If the Entry is at the developing stage and needs much research and development work, manufacturing of a working model or any other operations, the Entrant and Investor shall sign an agreement under which the Investor shall finance all necessary works to obtain such a result which can be protected under intellectual property law. Thus, the Entrant is provided with comprehensive assistance in registration of the IPR to his/her Entry and its output under procedure set forth by law. After issuing the appropriate certificate of protection the Entrant shall transfer the irrevocable exclusive license to exploit his/her innovative project and its output all over the world.
The Entrant who has submitted such innovative project becomes manager of this Project responsible for research-and-development (R&D).
The Author shall receive royalty - periodic payments stipulated in the license agreement for exploiting the Entry and its output.
Amount of royalty set in the appropriate agreement is based on the basic rates of royalty accepted in international practice and based on the expenses of the Investor (including updating). The remittance of the royalty is subject to the agreement.
License Agreement shall be signed within 20 days from the date of receiving by the Entrant the notification of necessity to conclude the agreement in case the Entrant already possesses a certificate of protection of the innovative project and its output. If the Entrant fails without valid reasons to sign such agreement the Prize shall be FORFEITED.
In case the Entrant possess no certificate of protection of the innovative project and its output and such project is completely prepared for patent application (or any other kind of protection), the Entrant and the Investor (or another entity designated by the Investor)shall sign a preliminary agreement which binds the Entrant provided a certificate of protection is issued to conclude the License Agreement within 5 days from the date the decision to grant a certificate of protection has been issued by the competent authority.
If the Entry is at the developing stage and needs research and development works or any other operations, the Entrant and the Investor (or another entity designated by the Investor) shall sign a preliminary agreement which binds the Entrant provided a certificate of protection is issued to conclude the License Agreement after completing all necessary research and development works at the expenses of the Investor within 5 days from the date the decision to grant a certificate of protection has been issued by the competent authority. Financing of said works will begin after the preliminary agreement is signed.
Confidentiality
The Entrants shall be guaranteed a complete confidentiality of information submitted to the Organizing Committee.
The access to the Entries shall have:
- Members of the Organizing Committee;
- Members of the Expert and Corporate Councils. The persons referred to above shall be bound by the provisions of Confidentiality which are published on the official website of the Contest.
The Organizing Committee shall have the right to use in mass media at any arrangements and events with any purpose complying with the law the information marked in the Application and Questionnaire with an asterisk («*»).
| 
Legal information
