# Contributor License Agreement

Thank you for your interest in the open source software project OVITO (defined as the GitLab repository “stuko/ovito” – the “Project”) maintained or managed 
by OVITO GmbH, Germany, represented by Alexander Stukowski (“us”). The purpose of this Contribution Agreement (“Agreement”) is to define the intellectual property license granted by persons or 
entities that contribute code to us for the Project (“Contributions” and further defined below). If the Contribution is made on behalf of a company, the 
term “you” as used in this Agreement will mean the individual accepting this Agreement as well as the company employing such individual.
You hereby agree to the following terms and conditions:

1. Contributions: 

    The term “Contribution” means any source code, object code, patch, tool, sample, graphic, specification, manual, documentation, or any other material posted or submitted by you to the Project.

    A Contribution is “submitted” when any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication is sent to the Project, including but not limited to communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems, and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the Project for the purpose of discussing or improving software or documentation of the Project. Communication that is conspicuously marked or designated in writing by you as “Not a Contribution” will not be considered a Contribution. Any Contribution submitted by you to the Project will be under the terms and conditions of this Agreement without any additional terms or conditions.

2. Grant of License: 

    You hereby transfer to us your entire right, title, and interest (including all your rights under copyright) in the changes and enhancements to the Contribution, including changes in accompanying documentation files and supporting files as well as changes in actual program code. The assignment shall also include any future revisions of these changes and enhancements hereafter made by you. This includes, at our option, the right to sublicense these same rights to third parties through multiple levels of sublicensees or other licensing or transfer arrangements.
    
    You agree that you will not assert any moral rights in your contribution against us, our licensees or transferees. You also agree that we may register a copyright in the Contribution and exercise all ownership rights associated with it; and you agree that neither of us has any duty to consult with, obtain the consent of, pay or render an accounting to the other for any use or distribution of the Contribution.
    
    With respect to any patents you own, you hereby grant to us and to the recipients of software distributed by us a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide, full paid-up, royalty-free patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer your Contribution in whole or in part, alone or in combination with or included in any product, work, derivative works or materials arising out of the Project, where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable by you that are necessarily infringed by your Contribution alone or by combination of your Contribution with the Project to which you submitted the Contribution. This license includes, at our option, the right to sublicense these same rights to third parties through multiple levels of sublicensees or other licensing or transfer arrangements.

3. Ownership: 

    Except as set out above, you keep all right, title and interest in your Contribution. You represent that you are legally entitled to grant the above licenses. If your employer(s) has rights to intellectual property that you create that includes your Contribution, you represent that you have received permission to make Contributions on behalf of that employer, that your employer has waived such rights for your Contributions to the Project, or that your employer has executed a separate Contribution Agreement with us. You represent that your Contribution is an original work by you, and to your knowledge, no other person claims, or has the right to claim, any right whatsoever in the Contribution. You represent and warrant that to the best of your knowledge, each Contribution will not violate any third party's copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other intellectual property rights.

4. Notice and Inclusion:
    
    You agree to notify us if you become aware of any circumstance which would make any of the foregoing representations inaccurate in any respect.
    The Project is under no obligation to accept and include every Contribution.

5. Effective Date: 
    
    The rights that you grant to us under these terms are effective on the date you first submitted the Contribution to us, even if your submission took place before the date you agreed to these terms.