Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Terms and Conditions

This Competition Closed 20 November 2020. Thank you to all participants.

-- TERMS AND CONDITIONS --

Intellectual Property Rights

Other than as set forth herein, NIST does not make any claim to ownership of your entry or any of your intellectual property or third-party intellectual property that it may contain. By participating in the PEER Prize Competition, you are not granting any rights in any patents or pending patent applications related to your entry; provided that by submitting an entry (i.e., participating in the Competition), you are granting NIST certain limited rights as set forth herein.

However, following the competition, Winners of the PEER competition will be invited to upload their submission to a NIST website or to otherwise make it available on a publicly accessible website of their choice which will be made available on an unrestricted, irrevocable, royalty-free basis to the community as a whole, with the goal of impacting compliance of Bayh-Dole reporting requirements. The decision of whether or not to upload their submission will not impact the scoring.

By submitting an entry, you grant to NIST the right to review and score your entry as described in the section “Basis on which winners will be selected,” to describe your entry in connection with any materials created in connection with the Competition on the Event Website, and to have the Judges, Competition administrators, and the designees of any of them, review your entry.

By submitting an entry in the PEER Prize Competition, you grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable, paid up right and license to NIST to use your name, likeness, biographical information, image, any other personal data submitted with your entry and the contents in your entry, in connection with the PEER Prize Competition for any purpose, including promotion and advertisement of the competition and future challenges.

You agree that nothing in these Rules grants you a right or license to use any names or logos of NIST or the Department of Commerce, or any other intellectual property or proprietary rights of NIST or the Department of Commerce or their employees or contractors. You grant to NIST the right to include your name and your company or institution name and logo (if your entry is from a company or institution) as a Participant on the Event Website and in materials from NIST announcing Winners, Finalists or Participants in the Competition. Other than these uses or as otherwise set forth herein, you are not granting NIST any rights to your trademarks.

Entries containing any matter which, in the sole discretion of NIST, is indecent, defamatory, in obvious bad taste, which demonstrates a lack of respect for public morals or conduct, which promotes discrimination in any form, which shows unlawful acts being performed, which is slanderous or libelous, or which adversely affects the reputation of NIST, will not be accepted. If NIST, in its sole discretion, finds any entry to be unacceptable, then such entry shall be deemed disqualified and will not be evaluated or considered for award. NIST shall have the right to remove any content from the Event Website in its sole discretion at any time and for any reason, including, but not limited to, any online comment or posting related to the Competition.

To advance the goal of impacting compliance of Bayh-Dole reporting requirements, following the competition, if necessary, NIST may negotiate a license for the use of intellectual property.

Confidential Information

By making a submission to the PEER Prize Competition, you agree that no part of your submission includes any confidential or proprietary information, ideas or products, including but not limited to information, ideas or products within the scope of the Trade Secrets Act, 18 USC §1905. Because NIST will not receive or hold any submitted materials "in confidence," it is agreed that, with respect to your entry, no confidential or fiduciary relationship or obligation of secrecy is established between NIST and you, your entry team, the company or institution you represent when submitting an entry, or any other person or entity associated with any part of your entry.

Warranties

By participating in the PEER Prize Competition, you represent and warrant that all information you submit is true and complete to the best of your knowledge, that you have the right and authority to submit the information on your own behalf or on behalf of the persons and entities that you specify, and that your submission uploaded to the Event Website:

(a)   is your own original work, or is submitted by permission with full and proper credit given within your entry;

(b)   does not contain confidential information or trade secrets (yours or anyone else's);

(c)   does not knowingly violate or infringe upon the patent rights, industrial design rights, copyrights, trademarks, rights in technical data, rights of privacy, publicity or other intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity;

(d)   does not contain malicious code, such as viruses, malware, timebombs, cancelbots, worms, Trojan horses or other potentially harmful programs or other material or information;

(e)   does not and will not violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance, rule or regulation, including, without limitation, United States export laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and the Department of Commerce Export Regulations; and

(f)   does not trigger any reporting or royalty or other obligation to any third party.

Limitation of Liability

By participating in the PEER Prize Competition, you agree to assume any and all risks and to release, indemnify and hold harmless NIST from and against any injuries, losses, damages, claims, actions and any liability of any kind (including attorneys' fees) resulting from or arising out of your participation in, association with or submission to the PEER Prize Competition (including any claims alleging that your entry infringes, misappropriates or violates any third party's intellectual property rights). In addition, you agree to waive claims against the Federal Government and its related entities, except in the case of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from your participation in the PEER Prize Competition, whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise.

NIST is not responsible for any miscommunications such as technical failures related to computer, telephone, cable, and unavailable network or server connections, related technical failures, or other failures related to hardware, software or virus, or incomplete or late entries. Any compromise to the fair and proper conduct of the PEER Prize Competition may result in the disqualification of an entry or Participant, termination of the PEER Prize Competition, or other remedial action, at the sole discretion of NIST. NIST reserves the right in its sole discretion to extend or modify the dates of the PEER Prize Competition, to modify the test and training data provided at the Event Website, and to change the terms set forth herein governing any phases taking place after the effective date of any such change. By entering, you agree to the terms set forth herein and to all decisions of NIST and/or all of their respective agents, which are final and binding in all respects.

NIST is not responsible for: (1) Any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by a Participant, printing errors, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or used in the PEER Prize Competition; (2) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry Process for the PEER Prize Competition; (3) technical or human error that may occur in the administration of the PEER Prize Competition or the processing of entries; or (4) any injury or damage to persons or property that may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from a Participant's participation in the PEER Prize Competition or receipt or use or misuse of an Award. If for any reason an entry is confirmed to have been deleted erroneously, lost, or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, the Participant's sole remedy is to submit another entry in the PEER Prize Competition.

Termination and Disqualification

NIST reserves the authority to cancel, suspend, and/or modify the PEER Prize Competition, or any part of it, if any fraud, technical failures, or any other factor beyond NIST's reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the PEER Prize Competition, as determined by NIST in its sole discretion.

NIST reserves the right to disqualify any Participant it believes to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the PEER Prize Competition or to be acting in violation of any applicable rule or condition.

Any attempt by any person to undermine the legitimate operation of the PEER Prize Competition may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, NIST reserves the authority to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Verification of Potential Winner(s)

All potential winners are subject to verification by NIST, whose decisions are final and binding in all matters related to the PEER Prize Competition.

Potential winner(s) must continue to comply with all terms and conditions of the PEER Prize Competition Rules described herein, and winning is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements. In the event that a potential winner, or an announced winner, is found to be ineligible or is disqualified for any reason, NIST may make an award, instead, to another Participant.

Privacy and Disclosure under FOIA

Except as provided herein, information submitted throughout the PEER Prize Competition will be used only to communicate with Participants regarding entries and/or the PEER Prize Competition. Participant entries and submissions to this competition may be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA").

Authority

15 U.S.C. 3719, as amended.

 

Created September 10, 2020, Updated August 23, 2023