About the Contributor Licence Agreement (CLA)

You can read the full Contributor License Agreement here.

The PDF contains the actual CLA that contributors are asked to sign. The sections below are intended to explain its main points in less legal language and help you understand why we require it.

If you are interested in contributing, please email tobias.rohrer@ise.fraunhofer.de after reviewing the CLA. We'll provide you with an editable copy and guide you through the signing process.

The following information is a non-binding explanatory summary only and does not constitute legal advice or a legally binding statement by Fraunhofer.

Why we need a CLA:

We ask contributors to sign a Contributor License Agreement (“CLA”) to help ensure that Contributions can be integrated, modified, distributed and, where applicable, commercially used by Fraunhofer under a clear legal framework. The CLA protects both Fraunhofer and you by clarifying rights and responsibilities.

What you agree to by signing the CLA:

Granting rights: By concluding the CLA with Fraunhofer, you grant Fraunhofer the right to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sublicense your contribution worldwide, forever, and for commercial purposes. Fraunhofer can include your contribution in the project and/or license it under any license, including proprietary or open-source licenses.

Patents: If you own patent rights that are licensable by you and are necessarily infringed by the use of your Contribution or a Work containing it, the CLA also grants Fraunhofer a royalty-free patent license to the extent needed to use and exploit that Contribution or Work.

Your rights: You keep ownership of your Contribution. You may continue to use and exploit your own contribution to the extent permitted by the rights you hold and as long as this does not conflict with the rights granted under the CLA. However, if your Contribution constitutes or forms part of Adapted Material of NRGISE Open according to the license CC BY-NC-SA under which NRGISE Open is made publicly available, your use or distribution of that Adapted Material may also be subject to the CC BY-NC-SA. The CLA does not change these license terms for the publicly available NRGISE Open; it governs the separate rights granted to Fraunhofer in your Contribution.

Responsibility: By entering into the CLA, you confirm that you are entitled to submit the Contribution and to grant the rights set out in the CLA. If you submit third-party material, you must clearly identify it separately and provide the relevant source information, license terms and any known restrictions.

Liability: The CLA contains broad limitations of liability in favor of the contributor. In particular, except in cases of intent or gross negligence, the contributor generally does not assume liability towards Fraunhofer for damages arising from the use of the Contribution.

Bottom line:

You are allowing Fraunhofer to use your Contribution freely (including commercially) while keeping ownership of your work. You may still use your own Contribution yourself, but only to the extent permitted by the rights you hold. Your use and distribution of your Contribution to third parties may be in particular subject to the license CC BY-NC-SA, if the Contribution is Adapted Material of NRGISE Open according to this license. The rights granted to Fraunhofer under the CLA remain unaffected.