Hack Devpost, the Hackathon (the “Hackathon”) Official Rules

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. 

SUBMISSION OF ANY ENTRY CONSTITUTES AGREEMENT TO THESE OFFICIAL RULES AS A CONTRACT BETWEEN ENTRANT (AND EACH INDIVIDUAL MEMBER OF ENTRANT), THE HACKATHON SPONSOR, AND DEVPOST.

1. Dates and Timing

Submission Period: January 31, 2023 (10:00 am Eastern Time) – February 26, 2023 (11:45 pm Eastern Time) (“Submission Period”).

Judging Period:  March 3, 2023 (10:00 am Eastern Time) – March 20, 2023 (5:00 pm Eastern Time) (“Submission Period”).

Public Community Voting:  March 3, 2023 (10:00 am Eastern Time) – March 20, 2023 (5:00 pm Eastern Time) (“Voting Period”).

Winners Announced: On or around March 27, 2023 (2:00 pm Eastern Time).

2. Sponsor and Administrator

Devpost, Inc. (“Devpost”), 222 Broadway, Floor 19, New York, NY 10038

3. Eligibility

The Hackathon IS open to: 

• Individuals who are at least the age of majority where they reside as of the time of entry (“Eligible Individuals”);
  (the above are collectively, “Entrants”)

An Eligible Individual may join more than one Team or Organization and an Eligible Individual who is part of a Team or Organization may also enter the Hackathon on an individual basis. If a Team or Organization is entering the Hackathon, they must appoint and authorize one individual (the “Representative”) to represent, act, and enter a Submission, on their behalf. By entering a Submission on behalf of a Team or Organization you represent and warrant that you are the Representative authorized to act on behalf of your Team or Organization.

The Hackathon IS NOT open to: 

• Individuals who are residents of, or Organizations domiciled in, a country, state, province or territory where the laws of the United States or local law prohibits participating or receiving a prize in the Hackathon (including, but not limited to, Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and any other country designated by the United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control) 
• Teams of Individuals (“Teams”)
• Organizations (including corporations, not-for-profit corporations and other nonprofit organizations, limited liability companies, partnerships, and other legal entities) that exist and have been organized or incorporated at the time of entry.
• Organizations involved with the design, production, paid promotion, execution, or distribution of the Hackathon, including the Sponsor and Administrator (“Promotion Entities”).
• Employees, representatives and agents** of such Promotion Entities, and all members of their immediate family or household*
• Any other individual involved with the design, production, promotion, execution, or distribution of the Hackathon, and each member of their immediate family or household*
• Any Judge (defined below), or company or individual that employs a Judge
• Any parent company, subsidiary, or other affiliate*** of any organization described above
• Any other individual or organization whose participation in the Hackathon would create, in the sole discretion of the Sponsor and/or Administrator, a real or apparent conflict of interest 

*The members of an individual’s immediate family include the individual’s spouse, children and stepchildren, parents and stepparents, and siblings and stepsiblings. The members of an individual’s household include any other person that shares the same residence as the individual for at least three (3) months out of the year. 

**Agents include individuals or organizations that in creating a Submission to the Hackathon, are acting on behalf of, and at the direction of, a Promotion Entity through a contractual or similar relationship.

***An affiliate is: (a) an organization that is under common control, sharing a common majority or controlling owner, or common management; or (b) an organization that has a substantial ownership in, or is substantially owned by the other organization.

4. How To Enter

5. Submission Modifications.

1. Draft Submissions: Prior to the end of the Submission Period, you may save draft versions of your submission on Devpost to your portfolio before submitting the submission materials to the Hackathon for evaluation. Once the Submission Period has ended, you may not make any changes or alterations to your submission, but you may continue to update the project in your Devpost portfolio.
2. Modifications: After the Submission Period. Devpost may permit you to modify part of your submission after the Submission Period for the purpose of adding, removing or replacing material that potentially infringes a third party mark or right, discloses personally identifiable information, or is otherwise inappropriate. The modified submission must remain substantively the same as the original submission with the only modification being what the Sponsor and Devpost permits. 

6. Judges & Criteria.

Submissions will be evaluated by a panel of judges selected by the Sponsor (the “Judges”). Judges may be employees of the sponsor or third parties, may or may not be listed individually on the Hackathon Website, and may change before or during the Judging Period. Judging may take place in one or more rounds with one or more panels of Judges, at the discretion of the sponsor. 

Stage One) The first stage will determine via pass/fail whether the Idea Submissions meet a baseline level of viability, in that the idea reasonably fits the theme and reasonably applied effort to present it. Feedback Submissions will pass/fail based on how complete, relevant, and potentially viable it is.

Stage Two) All submissions that pass Stage One will be evaluated in Stage Two based on the following equally weighted criteria (the “Judging Criteria”):

Entries will be judged on the following criteria, and according to the sole and absolute discretion of the judges:

Feedback Submission
Feedback Submission will be evaluated base on how complete were the responses to the feedback questions? How viable and impactful was the feedback provided?

Idea Submissions
Idea submissions will be evaluated on the following equally weighted criteria:

• Desirability - How widely would the solution appeal to the broader community? Did they build a case for if hackathon participants would actually want this?
• Viability - How widely would the solution appeal to future hackathon sponsors? Is this project something most companies hosting a hackathon can provide?
• Readily Usable - How far did the participant go to build out the idea? How well thought out is the project and its user experience? Would this project make it easier for hackathon participants to submit a project to a hackathon?

The scores from the Judges will determine the potential winners of the applicable prizes. The Entrant(s) that are eligible for a Prize, and whose Submissions earn the highest overall scores based on the applicable Judging Criteria, will become potential winners of that Prize.

Community Choice Voting. During the Voting Period, eligible Idea Submissions will be posted on the Hackathon Website for community members to submit their votes. Voting results will not be displayed publicly. The winner of the Community Choice Prize will be selected based on the highest number of verified votes received during the Voting Period. Verified vote counts will be determined by Devpost. Participation and use of Public Voting is subject to the Devpost Terms of Service which include the below:

“You may not use any manual or automated vote process or methods, or multiple e-mail addresses, to circumvent the one-vote limit per person per Submission. Doing so will subject all of your votes to disqualification. The Poster may also disqualify a Maker, if the Maker receives multiple or irregular votes from the same user or users, receives votes in a manner that indicates manual, automated or other vote manipulation, or attempts to compensate voters.”

Note: Submissions which are solely Feedback Submissions will not be featured in the Hackathon gallery.

Tie Breaking. For each Prize listed below, if two or more submissions are tied, the tied submission with the highest score in the first applicable criterion listed above will be considered the higher scoring submission. In the event any ties remain, this process will be repeated, as needed, by comparing the tied Submissions’ scores on the next applicable criterion. If two or more submissions are tied on all applicable criteria, the panel of Judges will vote on the tied submissions.

7. Intellectual Property Rights.

All submissions remain the intellectual property of the individuals or organizations that developed them. By submitting an entry, entrants agree that the sponsor will have a fully paid, non-exclusive license to use such entry for judging the entry. Entrants agree that the sponsor and Devpost shall have the right to promote the submission and use the name, likeness, voice and image of all individuals contributing to a submission, in any materials promoting or publicizing the Hackathon and its results, during the Hackathon Period and for three years thereafter.  Some Submission components may be displayed to the public. Other Submission materials may be viewed by the sponsor, Devpost, and judges for screening and evaluation. By submitting an entry or accepting any prize, entrants represent and warrant that (a) submitted content is not copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless entrant is the owner of such rights or has permission from their rightful owner to post the content; and (b) the content submitted does not contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware or other disabling devices or harmful or malicious code.

8. Prizes.

IMPORTANT NOTES ON MULTIPLE PRIZE ELIGIBILITY:

• An Entrant can win a maximum of one (1) prize awarded by Judges’ scores and (1) Community Choice prize. 

• Feedback Submitter Prize will be awarded to the first 20 eligible Feedback Submissions and are not based upon the Judges’ scores. [Added for clarity on Feb 2]

A. Substitutions & Changes: Prizes are non-transferable by the winner. Sponsor in its sole discretion has the right to make a prize substitution of equivalent or greater value. Sponsor will not award a prize if there are no eligible submissions entered in the Hackathon, or if there are no eligible Entrants or submissions for a specific prize.

B. Verification Requirement: THE AWARD OF A PRIZE TO A POTENTIAL WINNER IS SUBJECT TO VERIFICATION OF THE IDENTITY, QUALIFICATIONS AND ROLE OF THE POTENTIAL WINNER IN THE CREATION OF THE SUBMISSION. No submission or submitter shall be deemed a winning submission or winner until their post-competition prize affidavits have been completed and verified, even if prospective winners have been announced verbally or on the competition website. The final decision to designate a winner shall be made by the Sponsor and/or Administrator.

C. Prize Delivery: Prizes will be payable to the Entrant. A monetary Prize will be mailed to the winning Entrant’s address or sent electronically to the Entrant, only after receipt of the completed winner affidavit and other required forms (collectively the “Required Forms”), if applicable. Failure to provide correct information on the Required Forms, or other correct information required for the delivery of a Prize, may result in delayed Prize delivery, disqualification or the Entrant, or forfeiture of a Prize. Prizes will be delivered within 60 days of Devpost’s receipt of the completed Required Forms.

D. Fees & Taxes: Winners are responsible for any fees associated with receiving or using a prize, including but not limited to, wiring fees or currency exchange fees. Winners are responsible for reporting and paying all applicable taxes in their jurisdiction of residence (federal, state/provincial/territorial and local). Winners may be required to provide certain information to facilitate receipt of the award, including completing and submitting any tax or other forms necessary for compliance with applicable withholding and reporting requirements. United States residents may be required to provide a completed form W-9 and residents of other countries may be required to provide a completed W-8BEN form. Winners are also responsible for complying with foreign exchange and banking regulations in their respective jurisdictions and reporting the receipt of the Prize to relevant government departments/agencies, if necessary. Devpost reserves the right to withhold a portion of the prize amount to comply with the tax laws of the United States or other sponsor jurisdiction, or those of a winner’s jurisdiction.

9. Entry Conditions and Release.

1. By entering the Hackathon, you agree to the following:
   1. The relationship between you, the Entrant, and the Devpost is not a confidential, fiduciary, or other special relationship.
   2. You will be bound by and comply with these Official Rules and the decisions of the Devpost and/or the Hackathon Judges which are binding and final in all matters relating to the Hackathon.
   3. You release, indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Promotion Entities, and their respective parent, subsidiary, and affiliated companies, the Prize suppliers and any other organizations responsible for sponsoring, fulfilling, administering, advertising or promoting the Hackathon, and all of their respective past and present officers, directors, employees, agents and representatives (hereafter the “Released Parties”) from and against any and all claims, expenses, and liabilities (including reasonable attorneys’ fees), including but not limited to negligence and damages of any kind to persons and property, defamation, slander, libel, violation of right of publicity, infringement of trademark, copyright or other intellectual property rights, property damage, or death or personal injury arising out of or relating to a Entrant’s entry, creation of Submission or entry of a Submission, participation in the Hackathon, acceptance or use or misuse of the Prize (including any travel or activity related thereto) and/or the broadcast, transmission, performance, exploitation or use of the Submission as authorized or licensed by these Official Rules. 
2. Without limiting the foregoing, the Released Parties shall have no liability in connection with: 
   1. Any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by the Sponsor or Administrator’s electronic or printing error, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Hackathon; 
   2. Technical failures of any kind, including, but not limited to malfunctions, interruptions, or disconnections in phone lines, internet connectivity or electronic transmission errors, or network hardware or software or failure of the Hackathon Website;
   3. Unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or the Hackathon; 
   4. Technical or human error which may occur in the administration of the Hackathon or the processing of Submissions; or 
   5. Any injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from the Entrant’s participation in the Hackathon or receipt or use or misuse of any Prize.

The Released Parties are not responsible for incomplete, late, misdirected, damaged, lost, illegible, or incomprehensible Submissions or for address or email address changes of the Entrants. Proof of sending or submitting the aforementioned will not be deemed to be proof of receipt by the Sponsor or Administrator. If for any reason any Entrant’s Submission is determined to have not been received or been erroneously deleted, lost, or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, the Entrant’s sole remedy is to request the opportunity to resubmit its Submission. Such a request must be made promptly after the Entrant knows or should have known there was a problem and will be determined at the sole discretion of the Sponsor.

10. Publicity.

By participating in the Hackathon, Entrant consents to the promotion and display of the Entrant’s Submission, and to the use of personal information about themselves for promotional purposes, by the Sponsor, Administrator, and third parties acting on their behalf. Such personal information includes, but is not limited to, your name, likeness, photograph, voice, opinions, comments and hometown and country of residence. It may be used in any existing or newly created media, worldwide without further payment or consideration or right of review, unless prohibited by law. Authorized use includes but is not limited to advertising and promotional purposes. 

11. General Conditions. 

1. Devpost reserves the right, in their sole discretion, to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Hackathon, or any part of it, in the event of a technical failure, fraud, or any other factor or event that was not anticipated or is not within their control.
2. Devpost reserves the right in their sole discretion to disqualify any individual or Entrant if it finds to be actually or presenting the appearance of tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Hackathon or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or in a manner that is inappropriate, unsportsmanlike, not in the best interests of this Hackathon, or a violation of any applicable law or regulation.
3. Any attempt by any person to undermine the proper conduct of the Hackathon may be a violation of criminal and civil law. Should Devpost suspect that such an attempt has been made or is threatened, they reserve the right to take appropriate action including but not limited to requiring an Entrant to cooperate with an investigation and referral to criminal and civil law enforcement authorities.
4. If there is any discrepancy or inconsistency between the terms and conditions of the Official Rules and disclosures or other statements contained in any Hackathon materials, including but not limited to the Hackathon Submission form, Hackathon Website, or advertising, the terms and conditions of the Official Rules shall prevail.
5. The terms and conditions of the Official Rules are subject to change at any time, including the rights or obligations of the Entrant and Devpost. Devpost will post the terms and conditions of the amended Official Rules on the Hackathon Website. To the fullest extent permitted by law, any amendment will become effective at the time specified in the posting of the amended Official Rules or, if no time is specified, the time of posting.
6. If at any time prior to the deadline, an Entrant or prospective Entrant believes that any term in the Official Rules is or may be ambiguous, they must submit a written request for clarification. 
7. Devpost’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision. Should any provision of these Official Rules be or become illegal or unenforceable in any jurisdiction whose laws or regulations may apply to an Entrant, such illegality or unenforceability shall leave the remainder of these Official Rules, including the Rule affected, to the fullest extent permitted by law, unaffected and valid. The illegal or unenforceable provision shall be replaced by a valid and enforceable provision that comes closest and best reflects the sponsor’s intention in a legal and enforceable manner with respect to the invalid or unenforceable provision.
8. Excluding Submissions, all intellectual property related to this Hackathon, including but not limited to copyrighted material, trademarks, trade-names, logos, designs, promotional materials, web pages, source codes, drawings, illustrations, slogans and representations are owned or used under license by Devpost. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized copying or use of any copyrighted material or intellectual property without the express written consent of its owners is strictly prohibited. Any use in a Submission of Devpost’s intellectual property shall be solely to the extent provided for in these Official Rules.

12. Limitations of Liability.

By entering, all Entrants agree to release the Released Parties from any and all liability in connection with the Prizes or Entrant’s participation in the Hackathon. Provided, however, that any liability limitation regarding gross negligence or intentional acts, or events of death or body injury shall not be applicable in jurisdictions where such limitation is not legal.

13. Disputes.

1. Except where prohibited by law, as a condition of participating in this Hackathon, Entrant agrees that:
   1. Any and all disputes and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Hackathon, or any Prizes awarded, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action lawsuit, and exclusively by final and binding arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association and held at the AAA regional office nearest the contestant;
   2. The Federal Arbitration Act shall govern the interpretation, enforcement and all proceedings at such arbitration; and
   3. Judgment upon such arbitration award may be entered in any court having jurisdiction.
2. Under no circumstances will Entrant be permitted to obtain awards for, and Entrant hereby waives all rights to claim, punitive, incidental or consequential damages, or any other damages, including attorneys’ fees, other than contestant’s actual out-of-pocket expenses (i.e., costs associated with entering this Hackathon), and Entrant further waives all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.
3. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of the Entrant and Sponsor in connection with this Hackathon, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the substantive laws of the State of New York, USA without regard to New York choice of law rules.

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

14. Additional Terms.

Please review the Devpost Terms of Service at https://info.devpost.com/terms for additional rules that apply to your participation in the Hackathon and more generally your use of the Hackathon Website. Such Terms of Service are incorporated by reference into these Official Rules, including that the term "Poster" in the Terms of Service shall mean the same as "Sponsor" in these Official rules." If there is a conflict between the Terms of Service and these Official Rules, these Official Rules shall control with respect to this Hackathon only.

15. Entrant’s Personal Information.

Information collected from entrants is subject to Devpost’s Privacy Policy, which is available at https://info.devpost.com/privacy.

For questions, send an email to [email protected].

16. Cat Notification Policy.

Be the first registered Entrant to correctly send [email protected] the number of cats (only counting cats with faces) on this hackathon site and earn swag. [The cat's out of the bag - this prize was claimed already as of Feb 1]