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This contest looks pretty interesting but I'm having some concerns about the wording in the rules:

Once submitted, a prize winning Submission becomes the exclusive property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned. You expressly agree that by entering into the Contest any rights you may own in respect to a prize winning Submission shall be transferred to Sponsor by means of this Agreement. You shall be obliged to perform any measures necessary in order to vest any intellectual property rights in the name of Sponsor in case required by any law or regulation. In such case, Entrant shall – at Sponsor’s first request – execute any deed or transfer or such other document as required in that effect. For the avoidance of doubt, Sponsor shall have the exclusive right to make any kind of sequels, spinoffs, changes and translating the prize winning Submission in any language , all in relation to the exploitation of the prize winning Submission on any kind of media now known or hereinafter developed, without territorial or time limitations. The responsibility to implement localizations made by Sponsor in up to 19 languages will be that of the developer.

So it sounds like they get full IP rights, but I can't read this law stuff. Anybody have any insight? Much appreciated!

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    \$\begingroup\$ Sounds like they get full IP over it, in exchange for the prize money of course. \$\endgroup\$
    – David Young
    Aug 31, 2010 at 22:18
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    \$\begingroup\$ for the CHANCE of winning $5000, this is a terrible deal. \$\endgroup\$
    – Iain
    Sep 1, 2010 at 8:29
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    \$\begingroup\$ These types of contests are scams to get free IP from gullible developers. They should be avoided at all costs. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bachus
    Sep 1, 2010 at 9:40

1 Answer 1

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Once submitted, a prize winning Submission becomes the exclusive property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned.

If you win, your submission is now theirs, and theirs only.

You expressly agree that by entering into the Contest any rights you may own in respect to a prize winning Submission shall be transferred to Sponsor by means of this Agreement.

They also want all the exclusive rights for everything in the game that you own the rights to.

You shall be obliged to perform any measures necessary in order to vest any intellectual property rights in the name of Sponsor in case required by any law or regulation. In such case, Entrant shall – at Sponsor’s first request – execute any deed or transfer or such other document as required in that effect.

They want you to sign over on paper that they own the property.

For the avoidance of doubt, Sponsor shall have the exclusive right to make any kind of sequels, spinoffs, changes and translating the prize winning Submission in any language , all in relation to the exploitation of the prize winning Submission on any kind of media now known or hereinafter developed, without territorial or time limitations.

For clarification, they really want to completely own your IP, and want exclusive rights to any sequels or anything, and they can basically do what they want with it.

The responsibility to implement localizations made by Sponsor in up to 19 languages will be that of the developer.

If you win you have to translate your game into 19 different human languages.

In my opinion, stay away from this unless you are willing to completely loose all rights to what you make.

Edit: I meant languages. :/

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    \$\begingroup\$ Yeah, the tl;dr is they own it, and anything that will ever come from it, In its entirety. Also you still have to localize it for them. IANAL \$\endgroup\$
    – Jesse Dorsey
    Sep 1, 2010 at 0:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ Good stuff, thanks a lot! Gonna pass on this then. \$\endgroup\$
    – richtaur
    Sep 1, 2010 at 1:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ "in up to 19 languages" sounds like translating into 19 human languages. Should "submissions" be edited to "languages" or did I misinterpret the last quoted sentence? \$\endgroup\$
    – Ricket
    Sep 1, 2010 at 1:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yes, I did mean that. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I edited it in my answer. I had typed it a bit of a hurry. \$\endgroup\$
    – AttackingHobo
    Sep 1, 2010 at 4:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ I am not a lawyer as well, but the text seems pretty straightforward to me. \$\endgroup\$
    – AttackingHobo
    Sep 1, 2010 at 4:46

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