Google Apps Developer Challenge 2012 Official Rules

Other Languages:

The official rules are in English (see below) but are also available for download in the following languages:

• Arabic: Google Apps Developer Challenge 2012 Terms [PDF]
• Portuguese: Google Apps Developer Challenge 2012 Terms [PDF]
• Spanish: Google Apps Developer Challenge 2012 Terms [PDF]

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. CONTEST IS OPEN TO RESIDENTS OF THE 50 UNITED STATES, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND WORLDWIDE, EXCEPT FOR QUEBEC, CUBA, IRAN, SYRIA, NORTH KOREA, SUDAN, and MYANMAR (BURMA)

ENTRY IN THIS CONTEST CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES.

The Google Apps Developer Challenge 2012 (the “Contest”) is a skill contest where Entrants must submit an application they have created that showcases innovation, relevance to their target audience, and creativity with regard to use of Google products or services (“App”). The App that you (or your team) develop will be evaluated by judges, who will choose the winner(s) in accordance with these Official Rules. The prize(s) will be awarded to Entrant(s) with the highest score for the judging criteria. See below for the complete details.

1. BINDING AGREEMENT: In order to enter the Contest, you must agree to these Official Rules (“Rules”). Therefore, please read these Rules prior to entry to ensure you understand and agree. You agree that submission of an entry in the Contest constitutes agreement to these Rules. You may not submit an entry to the Contest and are not eligible to receive the prizes described in these Rules unless you agree to these Rules. These Rules form a binding legal agreement between you and Google with respect to the Contest.
2. ELIGIBILITY: To be eligible to enter the Contest, you must be: (1) above the age of majority in the country, state, province or jurisdiction of residence (or at least twenty years old in Taiwan) at the time of entry; (2) not a resident of Quebec, Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, or Myanmar (Burma)); (3) not a person or entity under U.S. export controls or sanctions; and (4) have access to the Internet as of June 1, 2012. Contest is void in Quebec, Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, Myanmar (Burma)), and where prohibited by law. Employees, interns, contractors, and official office-holders of Google and their parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, and their respective directors, officers, employees, advertising and promotion agencies, representatives, and agents, any Judges, or the members of Google’s or the Judge’s immediate families (parents, siblings, children, spouses, and life partners of each, regardless of where they live) and members of the households (whether related or not) of such employees, officers and directors are ineligible to participate in this Contest. Google reserves the right to verify eligibility and to adjudicate on any dispute at any time.
   If you are entering as part of a company or on behalf of your employer, these rules are binding on you, individually, and/or your employer. If you are acting within the scope of your employment, as an employee, contractor, or agent of another party, you warrant that such party has full knowledge of your actions and has consented thereto, including your potential receipt of a prize. You further warrant that your actions do not violate your employer’s or company’s policies and procedures.
3. SPONSOR: The Contest is sponsored by Google Inc. (“Google”), a Delaware corporation with principal place of business at 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA, 94043, USA.
4. CONTEST PERIOD: The Contest begins at 12:00:00 A.M. Pacific Time (PT) Zone in the United States on June 5, 2012 and ends at 11:59:59 P.M. PT on November 12, 2012 (“Contest Period”). ENTRANTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR DETERMINING THE CORRESPONDING TIME ZONE IN THEIR RESPECTIVE JURISDICTIONS.
5. HOW TO ENTER: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. To enter the Contest, visit the Contest website located at http://google.com/events/gadc2012 (“Contest Site”) during the Contest Period and follow the instructions for developing and submitting an App that showcases innovative, creative or compelling uses of the publicly available Google Apps Platform APIs (“App”). Apps must be uploaded to your Google Drive account, where available, or your Google Docs account, and you will be asked to send the URL associated with your uploaded App; your uploaded App must be marked as viewable by ‘Anyone with the link’. Google Drive and Google Docs accounts are free and may be obtained by visiting https://drive.google.com or https://docs.google.com. The App must utilize at least three (3) publicly available Google Apps Platform APIs or Google Drive API in a way that is central or key to the App’s purpose or operation and the entrant must have the right to use any and all code, trademarks or intellectual property included in the App for a commercial and/or public purpose (depending on the Entrant’s use of the App) (hereinafter, “Requirements”). Written parts of entries must be in English to be eligible. An Entrant may submit more than one Entry. At the time of submission, the Entrant must designate ONE and ONLY ONE category that the Entry is submitted under.The App must, at a minimum, must support English language use. At the time of entry, Entrants must identify:
   
   1. the category (and only one per entry) that best suits the purpose and/or use of their App
      • Enterprise / Small Business Solutions e.g. : Accounting, Sales, Workflow, Collaboration
      • Social / Personal Productivity / Games / Fun
      • Education / Not for Profit / Water / Food & Hunger / Health
   2. the region from where they are submitting. Regions are defined as follows:
      • India
      • South East Asia
      • Sub Saharan Africa
      • Latin America
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • Europe, North America and rest of world
   3. if any of the following apply:
      • You are entering as an Individual and are a woman
      • You are entering as an Individual and are an actively enrolled university student or university faculty member.
      • You are entering as a Team which is comprised entirely of women
      • You are entering as a Team which is comprised entirely of actively enrolled university students and/or university faculty members.
   
   Google reserves the right to move your entry to another region if we believe your entry should be included in another region.
   You may enter as an individual or as a team of up to three (3) people. You must include all participants who created the App on your team. Individuals or Teams comprised solely of women are also eligible to receive an additional prize, see section 7 for more information. Additionally, Individuals or Teams comprised solely of University students are also eligible to receive an additional prize, see section 7 for more information.
   Any App (or substantially similar application created by you or your team) must not have previously been publicly available through the Google Apps Marketplace or the Chrome Web Store prior to August 24, 2012.
   All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. (PT) on August 24, 2012. Entries are void if they are in whole or part illegible, incomplete, damaged, altered, counterfeit, obtained through fraud, or late. All entries will be deemed made by the authorized account holder of the email address submitted at the time of entry, and the potential winner may be required to show proof of being the authorized account holder for that email address. The "authorized account holder" is the natural person assigned to an email address by an Internet service provider, online service provider, or other organization responsible for assigning email address for the domain.
   During the Contest Period, Google, its agents and/or the Judges (defined below) will be evaluating each App to ensure that it meets the Requirements. The Google reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any entrant who submits a App that does not meet the Requirements.
6. JUDGING: Judging will be a multi-phased process:
   Round 1: Selection of Semi-Finalists
   Each entry will be judged by a panel of experts who are employees of Google and developers and experts in some regions (“Judges”). On or about August 24, 2012, each App will be evaluated by the Judges based on the following criteria:
   
   • Effective Use of the Google Apps and/or Google Drive Platform
   • Originality of Concept
   • Relevance to Region
   • Polish and Appeal
   • Polish and Appeal
   • Use of other Google platforms/APIs
   
   Judges will evaluate and attribute a score to each App made up of scores based upon the above-listed criteria. Up to ten (10) entries per category in each region that receive the highest overall scores by category and region will be selected as the Semi-Finalists. In the event of a tie, the App that received the higher score from the Judges in the category of “Effective Use of the Google Apps Platforms” will be selected as one of the Semi-Finalists. In the event a Semi-Finalist is disqualified for any reason, Google may select to choose the App that received the next highest total score as the potential Semi-Finalists.
   Round 2: Selection of Winners:
   Judges will re-evaluate each Semi-Finalist based on the criteria used in Round 1, selecting the highest scoring Apps (one per Category and Region) as the potential winners. In the event of a tie, the App which received a higher score in “Originality of Concept” will be selected as the potential winner.
   On or about November 12th, 2012, the potential winner(s) will be selected and notified by telephone and/or email, at Google’s discretion. If a potential winner does not respond to the notification attempt within five days from the first notification attempt, then such potential winner will be disqualified and an alternate potential winner will be selected from among all eligible entries received based on the judging criteria described herein. With respect to notification by telephone, such notification will be deemed given when the potential winner engages in a live conversation with Google or when a message is left on the potential winner’s voicemail service or answering machine by the Google, whichever occurs first. Except where prohibited by law, each potential winner may be required to sign and return a Declaration of Eligibility and Liability and Publicity Release and provide any additional information that may be required by Google. If required, potential winners must return all such required documents within three days following attempted notification or such potential winner will be deemed to have forfeited the prize and another potential winner will be selected based on the judging criteria described herein. All notification requirements, as well as other requirements within these Rules, will be strictly enforced.
   In the event that no entries are received, no prize will be awarded. Determinations of judges are final and binding.
7. PRIZES: Semi-Finalists:
   • All Entrants who are selected as Semi-Finalists will be awarded a Chromebook, as available in their region, with an approximate retail value of $400 USD.
   • In order to encourage participation from women and highlight innovations from women in the developing markets, we are adding an additional prize. If a Semi-Finalist happens to be an individual or a team consisting solely of women, that team will be awarded an additional prize of $1000 USD.
   • If an entry is submitted by a university student (as an Individual) or by a Team comprises entirely of university students and/or faculty is selected as a Semi-Finalist, that team or individual will also be awarded a prize of $1,000 USD.
   
   
   • Winners:
     
   • Three Entrants from each of the regions (one per category) will be awarded: $20,000 USD
   • Conditional University Prize: If any team from a university wins the competition in any of the categories, the department to which the members of the team belong will win $18,000. The event that the team members come from different departments, the money will be split between their departments.
   • 
     Odds of winning any prize depends on the number of eligible entries received during the Contest Period and the skill of the entrants. The prize(s) will be awarded within approximately six weeks of receipt by Google of final prize acceptance documents. No transfer, substitution or cash equivalent for prize(s) is allowed, except at Google’s sole discretion. Google reserves the right to substitute a prize, in whole or in part, of equal or greater monetary value if a prize cannot be awarded, in whole or in part, as described for any reason. Value is subject to market conditions, which can fluctuate and any difference between actual market value and ARV will not be awarded. The prize(s) may be subject to restrictions and/or licenses and may require additional hardware, software, service, or maintenance to use. The winner shall bear all responsibility for use of the prize(s) in compliance with any conditions imposed by such manufacturer(s), and any additional costs associated with its use, service, or maintenance. Contest Entities have not made and Contest Entities are not responsible in any manner for any warranties, representations, or guarantees, express or implied, in fact or law, relating to the prize(s), regarding the use, value or enjoyment of the prize(s), including, without limitation, its quality, mechanical condition, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose, with the exception of any standard manufacturer's warranty that may apply to the prize(s) or any components thereto.
8. GENERAL CONDITIONS: All federal, state, provincial and local laws and regulations apply. Google reserves the right to disqualify any entrant from the Contest if, in Google’s sole discretion, it reasonably believes that the entrant has attempted to undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest by cheating, deception, or other unfair playing practices or annoys, abuses, threatens or harasses any other entrants, Google, or the Judges.
9. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS: By submitting a App in this Contest, the entrant warrants and represents that (s)he owns all of the intellectual and industrial property rights in and to the App. Further, the entrant agrees that if any portion of the App should be deemed to be owned by the entrant that (s)he will, as a condition of entry, grant Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display and create a derivative work from, any entry or App that Entrant submits solely for the purposes of allowing Google to test and evaluate the App for purposes of the Contest and to advertise, display, demonstrate, or otherwise promote the App. Entrant specifically agrees that Google shall have the right to use, reproduce, publicly perform, and publicly display the App in connection with the advertising and promotion of the Contest and the App, via communication to the public or other groups, including, but not limited to the right to make screenshots, animations and video clips available for promotional purposes.
10. PRIVACY: Entrants agree that personal data entered during the registration, including name, mailing address, phone number, and email address may be processed, stored, shared and otherwise used for the purposes and within the context of the Contest. This data will also be transferred into the United States. By entering, entrants agree to the transmission, processing, sharing and storage of this personal data in the United States.
    Entrants also understand this data may be used by Google in order to verify an entrant’s identity, postal address and telephone number in the event an entry qualifies for a prize. Entrants have the right to access, review, rectify or cancel any personal data held by Google in connection with the Contest by writing to Google at the address listed above. If an Entrant does not provide the data required at registration, that Entrant’s entry will be ineligible. Otherwise, all personal information that is collected from the entrant is subject to Google’s Privacy Policy, located at http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.
    By accepting a prize, Entrant agrees and consents to Google and its agencies use of entrant’s name and/or likeness to name the entrant for a reasonable time after completion of the Contest in promotional and advertising material of Google (or its agents) as a winner of the Contest without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law.
    For residents of the EU: pursuant to EU law pertaining to data collection and processing, you are informed that:
    • the data controller is Google and the data recipients are Google and its agents;
    • your data is collected for purposes of administration of the promotion and for marketing purposes;
    • you have a right of access to and withdrawal of your personal data. You also have a right of opposition to the data collection, under certain circumstances. To exercise such right, you may write to privacy@google.com
    • your personal data will be transferred to the U.S.
11. PUBLICITY. By accepting a prize, entrant agrees to Google and its agencies use of his or her name and/or likeness and App for advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law.
12. WARRANTY AND INDEMNITY: Entrants warrant that their Apps are their own original work and, as such, they are the sole and exclusive owner and rights holder of the submitted App and that they have the right to submit the App in the Contest and grant all required licenses. Each entrant agrees not to submit any App that (1) infringes any third party proprietary rights, intellectual property rights, industrial property rights, personal or moral rights or any other rights, including without limitation, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, privacy, publicity or confidentiality obligations; or (2) otherwise violates the applicable state, federal, local or provincial law.
    To the maximum extent permitted by law, each entrant indemnifies and agrees to keep indemnified Contest Entities at all times from and against any liability, claims, demands, losses, damages, costs and expenses resulting from any act, default or omission of the entrant and/or a breach of any warranty set forth herein. To the maximum extent permitted by law, each entrant agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Contest Entities from and against any and all claims, actions, suits or proceedings, as well as any and all losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys fees) arising out of or accruing from (a) any App or other material uploaded or otherwise provided by the entrant that infringes any copyright, trademark, trade secret, trade dress, patent or other intellectual property right of any person or defames any person or violates their rights of publicity or privacy, (b) any misrepresentation made by the entrant in connection with the Contest; (c) any non-compliance by the entrant with these Rules; (d) claims brought by persons or entities other than the parties to these Rules arising from or related to the entrant’s involvement with the Contest; (e) acceptance, possession, misuse or use of any prize or participation in any Contest-related activity or participation in this Contest; (f) any malfunction or other problem with the Contest Site; (g) any error in the collection, processing, or retention of entry information; or (h) any typographical or other error in the printing, offering or announcement of any prize or winners.
13. ELIMINATION: Any false information provided within the context of the Contest by any entrant concerning identity, mailing address, telephone number, email address, ownership of right or non-compliance with these Rules or the like may result in the immediate elimination of the entrant from the Contest.
14. INTERNET: Contest Entities are not responsible for any malfunction of the entire Contest Site or any late, lost, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, illegible, undeliverable, or destroyed Apps or entry materials due to system errors, failed, incomplete or garbled computer or other telecommunication transmission malfunctions, hardware or software failures of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, typographical or system/human errors and failures, technical malfunction(s) of any telephone network or lines, cable connections, satellite transmissions, servers or providers, or computer equipment, traffic congestion on the Internet or at the Contest Site, or any combination thereof, including other telecommunication, cable, digital or satellite malfunctions which may limit an entrant’s ability to participate.
15. RIGHT TO CANCEL, MODIFY OR DISQUALIFY. If for any reason the Contest is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the Contest, Google reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest. Google further reserves the right to disqualify any entrant who tampers with the submission process or any other part of the Contest or Contest Site. Any attempt by an entrant to deliberately damage any web site, including the Contest Site, or undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest is a violation of criminal and civil laws and should such an attempt be made, Google reserves the right to seek damages from any such entrant to the fullest extent of the applicable law.
16. NOT AN OFFER OR CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT: Under no circumstances shall the submission of an App into the Contest, the awarding of a prize, or anything in these Rules be construed as an offer or contract of employment with either Google, or the Contest Entities. You acknowledge that you have submitted your App voluntarily and not in confidence or in trust. You acknowledge that no confidential, fiduciary, agency or other relationship or implied-in-fact contract now exists between you and Google or the Contest Entities and that no such relationship is established by your submission of an App under these Rules.
17. FORUM AND RECOURSE TO JUDICIAL PROCEDURES: These Rules shall be governed by, subject to, and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, United States of America, excluding all conflict of law rules. If any provision(s) of these Rules are held to be invalid or unenforceable, all remaining provisions hereof will remain in full force and effect. To the extent permitted by law, the rights to litigate, seek injunctive relief or make any other recourse to judicial or any other procedure in case of disputes or claims resulting from or in connection with this Contest are hereby excluded, and all Entrants expressly waive any and all such rights.
18. ARBITRATION: By entering the Contest, you agree that exclusive jurisdiction for any dispute, claim, or demand related in any way to the Contest will be decided by binding arbitration. All disputes between you and Google of whatsoever kind or nature arising out of these Rules, shall be submitted to Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc. (“JAMS”) for binding arbitration under its rules then in effect in the San Jose, California, USA area, before one arbitrator to be mutually agreed upon by both parties. The parties agree to share equally in the arbitration costs incurred.
19. SEVERABILITY: If any of the provisions in these rules is deemed not enforceable by a local court in the region or country where an Entrant resides, all other provisions outlined in these rules will still apply.
20. WINNER’S LIST: A list of the winners will be posted on the Contest Website after January 30, 2013.