for the KETMarket Digital Marketplace for Innovations, Technologies and Research and Development Services (hereinafter referred to as Innovation Marketplace)

1 Contractual relationship, changes to the Terms of Use

1.1   The following terms of use govern the contractual relationship between the provider of the digital innovation marketplace (KETMarket GmbH) (hereinafter referred to as the provider) and the user.

1.2   With the completion of the registration process for In the Innovation Marketplace, the user submits an offer to conclude a user contract on the basis of these Terms of Use. With the activation of the user account by the provider, the provider accepts the offer to conclude a user contract.

1.3   In case of doubt, any terms and conditions of the user that conflict with or deviate from these terms of use shall only be recognized by an express written confirmation by the provider.

1.4   The provider is entitled to change and adapt these terms and conditions during the current membership. The provider will send the user the amended terms and conditions in text form and draw special attention to the new regulations. At the same time, the provider will grant the user a reasonable period of time to declare whether he accepts the amended terms of use for the further use of the services. If no declaration is made within this period, the amended terms and conditions shall be deemed to have been agreed. The provider will expressly inform the user of this legal consequence at the beginning of the period. If the user objects to the amendment of these terms and conditions, the provider is entitled to terminate the user contract without notice at the time the terms of use come into force vis-à-vis the other users.

2 Subject of the contract of use

2.1   The subject of the user agreement is the provision of a globally accessible digital marketplace for research and development services, technologies, and knowledge resources by the provider.

2.2   The KETMarket^® Innovation Marketplace provides the user with the following functionality:

• Creation of your own profile for the person and to the company, which is publicly accessible to other registered users and, moreover, to any Internet user and can be found via search engines.
• Upload your own content, in particular advertisements with technology offers, own project reports, information on events and conferences and funding opportunities including content management via the user account.
• Contacting other users, managing contact details.
• Receiving, sending and receiving messages from and to other users.
• Activation of a search query for other users and for profile data.
• Publication of messages in user forums on the topics provided there.
• Publication of messages and comments in blogs on the topics provided there.
• Set-up and management of your own online store for the direct sale of services, prototypes or tickets for conference participation to business customers.

2.3   The specific graphic and functional design of the contractual usage options, the extension of the possibilities of use with additional features or their supplementation with additional services subject to a fee are at the discretion of the provider. The provider is entitled to modify and adapt the specific design at any time, while retaining the contractual possibilities of use.

2.4   The innovation marketplace is available to the user for an unlimited period of time at least 95% on an annual average. Unavoidable, unforeseeable and extraordinary events leading to the unavailability of the Innovation Marketplace such as power failures, hacking interventions, failures of the telecommunications lines from the transfer point to the Internet are not counted towards the availability minimum.

2.5. The upload and retrieval of content on the Innovation Marketplace is free of charge. The provider reserves the right to grant access to certain user content to other users only for a fee or a paid membership. The provider also reserves the right to highlight users’ content for a fee or to present it as top results in searches.

3 Registration, user account, handling of passwords

3.1   For the use of the KETMarket innovation marketplace, natural and companies can register. A natural person must be at least 18 years old at the time of registration.

3.2   The user is obliged, in accordance with the requirements of the registration form, to truthfully provide appropriate and complete information about his person and to keep his data up to date at all times.

3.3   The user is obliged to keep his password secret, to keep it safe and not to make it accessible to third parties. If the password is disclosed to third parties, the user must inform the provider immediately by e-mail or in writing so that the old password can be blocked and a new password can be assigned. The user is not entitled to make his user account available to third parties. The user acknowledges that he is fully responsible for the actions of a third party to whom he makes his user account available.

4 General obligations of the user

4.1   The user may only use the Innovation Marketplace within the scope of the contractually stipulated purposes. Any other use beyond the that is prohibited. In particular, the following actions are probibited:

• systematic scraping of contact details of other users for the purpose of disclosure to third parties;
• unreasonably harass to other users through aggressive, obscene, abusive, defamatory, or intrusive forum posts or messages;
• unreasonable harassment of other users through the mass sending of unsolicited advertising;
• extensive or long-term use of innovation marketplace for the publication and dissemination of content that does not objectively correspond to the purpose or subject area of the innovation marketplace or its blogs and forums and that may harm the attractiveness of the innovation marketplace for other users;
• any action that imposes excessive loads on the system or disrupts the system;
• the use of third-party identities for registration, posting or sending messages.

4.2   Each of the aforementioned breaches of duty entitles the provider to terminate the contract and block the user account without further notice. In addition, the provider is entitled to refuse to activate a new account for this user for a period of one year from the date of termination.

4.3   Statements and comments in messages, forum or blog entries must follow a polite and respectful interaction with each other. Criticisms and expressions of opinion should and be allowed to be expressed constructively.

5 Obligations of the user with regard to posted content

5.1   The user must ensure that by posting content (texts, images, photos, videos, names, trademarks) etc.) does not violate the rights of third parties (e.g. infringement of copyrights, infringements of personal rights, infringements of competition law).

5.2   The user indemnifies the provider against all claims of third parties that they assert against the provider in relation to an infringement of rights committed by him and for which he is responsible. In this regard, the user assumes all necessary costs of legal defense.

5.3   The provider is entitled to delete or deactivate the content posted by the user if it violates the rights of third parties or if third parties assert claims due to an infringement, the merits of which cannot be obviously ruled out.

5.4   If the provider becomes aware of a possible infringement of the law by the user’s content, he will notify the user of this immediately in text form.

6 Termination and deletion of the user account

6.1   The user is entitled to terminate the user contract with the provider at any time without giving reasons and without notice. The termination must be in text form or can be implied by deactivating the user accounts are explained. In the event of termination, the user’s profile will be deleted, but his posts and content published in forums or blogs will remain without a link to his profile.

6.2   The provider is entitled to terminate the user contract with a notice period of one month to the end of the previous month.

6.3   In addition to the notice of termination, the provider is entitled to terminate the user contract without notice if there is good cause. Good cause shall be deemed to exist in particular if the user

• persistently and seriously violates his contractual obligations (cf. §4)
• during use of Innovation Marketplace culpably and seriously violates legal regulations.

In these cases, the provider is also entitled to delete the user account and refuse to set up a new account for this user for a period of one year after receipt of the termination.

6.4   The provider will make use of his right to ordinary termination and deletion of the user account if the user has not logged in for at least one year and has not responded to a reminder message.

7 Liability

7.1   The provider is liable in cases of intent or gross negligence in accordance with the statutory provisions. Liability for guarantees is independent of fault. For slight negligence, the provider is liable exclusively in accordance with the provisions of the Product Liability Act, due to injury to life, limb or health or due to the breach of essential contractual obligations. However, the claim for damages for the slightly negligent breach of essential contractual obligations is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for the contract, unless liability is assumed for injury to life, limb or health. The provider is liable to the same extent for the fault of vicarious agents and representatives.

7.2   The provision of the above §7.1 extends to damages in addition to performance, damages in lieu of performance and the claim for compensation due to unsuccessful performance.expenses, regardless of the legal grounds, including liability for defects, delay or impossibility.

8 Use and processing of uploaded data

8.1 KETMarket is entitled to use content uploaded by users for advertising purposes both for the innovation marketplace and for the user’s posted offers itself and to pass it on to third parties. Third parties include, in particular, potential interested parties, service providers for online advertising, such as LinkedIn or Google.

8.2. KETMarket is entitled to process uploaded content and messages and information sent via the innovation marketplace and to use them anonymously for statistical purposes.

8.3 Content provided on the Innovation Marketplace does not reflect the opinion of the Provider. The provider is not liable for the correctness, truthfulness, or completeness of the information provided in user content.

8.3 KETMarket is entitled to translate content uploaded by the user and publish it localized into the national language of the countries of the European Economic Area. When uploading content (e.g. an advertisement), the user can choose whether the content should be provided only in English or localized in all languages. There is no legal entitlement to translation and provision in a specific language.

8.4 KETMarket is entitled to use information and data provided by the User and (other) Members in order to provide recommendations on contacts, offers, content and functions that may be useful to the User. For example, we use data and information about you and your offers to suggest complementary technology offers or suitable calls for funding. With an up-to-date and correct profile, you support us in making these recommendations relevant and accurate.

8.5 The user acknowledges and agrees that the provider will process personal data according to the privacy policy described here.

9 Final provisions

9.1   The following applies: exclusively the law of the Federal Republic of Germany to the exclusion of private international law and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. This does not apply to claims in the field of industrial property rights and copyright.

9.2   The following applies to the determination of the place of jurisdiction:

        If the user does not have a general place of jurisdiction in the Federal Republic of Germany or if the user is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the place of jurisdiction is the registered office of the provider. The provider can also sue the user at his general place of jurisdiction.