Design Award Jury Agreement

The Role of A' Design Award Jury Member
A' Design Award & Competition gives great attention for fair evaluation of entries that take part in the accolades. The A' Design Award & Competition is therefore a juried design competition where entries are voted by a grand jury panel composed of experienced and prominent academics, professionals, press members, entrepreneurs and key people in design industry. The A' Design Award & Competition jury panel votes entries based on the evaluation criteria defined for each design field and discipline to ensure entries are judged correctly. Each vote is recorded, normalized and weighted. Winners are those entries which receive the highest score after the evaluation. Entries which are ranked in the top are awarded with the platinum, golden, silver, bronze and iron accolades based on their percentile. During this procedure, entries are voted anonymously and the evaluation is blind-voted. Each entry must receive multiple votes in order to have a score assigned for them. The system is automated in a way that outside intervention would not be possible. The only factor that could affect the award status is the scores assigned by the award jury for the entries. This of course creates several threats; i.e. since no one is able to intervene to the rankings, the same participant could potentially win all the awards, or all awards could potentially be given to a single country or company. Many design awards do intervene in such situations; to "balance" the outcomes. However, A' Design Award & Competition methodology and principles which were scientifically developed does not permit these so called "balancing" actions. Given all these aspects, you must understand that the role of the A' Design Award jury is of greatest importance; because it is the A' Design Award Jury that has complete control about which entries wins the accolades. A' Design Award and Competition accepts that the results of the jury are final. Furthermore, A' Design Award and Competition allows entrants to upload project details and sensitive business information to support their entries which would be visible to the competition jury only. These sensitive information is attached to entries as a PDF document which is only visible to jury during voting, jury members must understand that these are secrets that the entrants trust with them, and thus the role of jury is also about covering and keeping these secrets. Esteemed jury panel members will be asked to sign the Juror's Declaration to showcase their commitment to fair and ethical judging. A' Design Award voting system does not permit awarding of entries which are below a certain score even though these entries would be in the top 30% after all entries are voted for. This means that the jury is further granted the discretion to withhold awards or prizes where it is their opinion that the submissions do not meet the standard for recognition. Furthermore we wish to remind that the organisers have the right to submit or replace a jury member in case of injury or illness as well as cases where ethical considerations and conflict of interest may arise. No relative to any jury member is permitted to enter the competition. The jury's decision is final and abiding.

Summary of Jury Agreement
Our Juror's Agreement is a legally binding contact signed between A' Design Awards and the Jury Member, the Juror's Agreement ensures and binds the Jury Members to not to share any information regarding the voting procedure and Entrant's Intellectual Properties. This contract ensures that Jury Members will be legally bound to "ethically" and "fairly" judge all the entries they vote for; conditions include for example voting fairly, not using the Entrant's Intellectual Property for benefits, and not sharing the Intellectual Properties shared by Entrants, not favoring or demoting an Entrant, or not using Entrant's work as a basis of a new work and others as written in detail as the "Juror's Agreement". The Juror's Agreement is unique to A' Design Awards, and helps us to run one of the most prestigious, credible and respected design awards where the jury panel is composed of individuals not only are prominent, influential and famous but also are completely honorable as well as trustable, and such A' Design Award participants can feel safe to trust their Entries and lend their Confidential Information to the A' Design Award for voting without being worried about leaks or misuse of their work. We invite all Jury Members to honor and agree to the A' Design Award's Juror's Agreement before judging.

Juror's Agreement
As an A' Design Award Jury Member, you must agree to these conditions:

1. A’ Design Awards (A' Design Award & Competition SRL, as the Organizer of A’ Design Awards and as the legal representative of the Entrants’ taking part in the competition pursuant to the Membership Agreement), as the (“Disclosing Party”, ”We”, ”A’ Design Awards”) is intended and entitled to share certain proprietary information with the Jury Member (“Receiving Party”, ”Recipient”, ”You”, ”Jury Member”). Therefore, in consideration of the mutual promises and covenants contained in this Agreement, and other good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, the Jury Member agrees to the terms and conditions written in this Agreement.
2. Protect Information of the Entrants. Core Definition of Confidential Information : Simply the Confidential Information is the Entrant’s intellectual property you vote for; i.e. it is the design entry, and any related images, the PDF, video and text etc, plus our voting mechanism itself. For the purpose of law, the following Extended (Legal) Definition of Confidential Information shall be considered: Confidential Information : (a) For purposes of this Agreement, “Confidential Information” means any data or information that is proprietary to the Disclosing Party (or that is proprietary of the Entrants and trusted to the Disclosing Party through the Membership Agreement) and not generally known to the public, whether in tangible or intangible form, whenever and however disclosed, including, but not limited to: (i) any marketing strategies, plans, financial information, or projections, operations, sales estimates, business plans and performance results relating to the past, present or future business activities of such party, its affiliates, subsidiaries and affiliated companies; (ii) plans for products or services, and customer or supplier lists; (iii) any scientific or technical information, invention, design, process, procedure, formula, improvement, technology or method; (iv) any concepts, reports, data, know-how, works-in-progress, designs, development tools, specifications, computer software, source code, object code, flow charts, databases, inventions, information and trade secrets; and (v) any other information that should reasonably be recognized as confidential information of the Disclosing Party. Confidential Information need not be novel, unique, patentable, copyrightable or constitute a trade secret in order to be designated Confidential Information. The Receiving Party acknowledges that the Confidential Information is proprietary to the Disclosing Party, has been developed and obtained through great efforts by the Disclosing Party and that Disclosing Party regards all of its Confidential Information as trade secrets. (b) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing to the contrary, Confidential Information shall not include information which: (i) was known by the Receiving Party prior to receiving the Confidential Information from the Disclosing Party; (b) becomes rightfully known to the Receiving Party from a third-party source not known (after diligent inquiry) by the Receiving Party to be under an obligation to Disclosing Party to maintain confidentiality; (c) is or becomes publicly available through no fault of or failure to act by the Receiving Party in breach of this Agreement; (d) is required to be disclosed in a judicial or administrative proceeding, or is otherwise requested or required to be disclosed by law or regulation, although the requirements of section titled “Compelled Disclosure of Confidential Information.” hereof shall apply prior to any disclosure being made; and (e) is or has been independently developed by employees, consultants or agents of the Receiving Party without violation of the terms of this Agreement.
3. Jury Members promises to judge the entries in a timely manner. If you are not able to judge the entries in a timely manner, you should let us know in advance so that we could appoint another jury member; each entry submitted to A’ Design Award and Competition is a result of diligence of the designers who have created them, furthermore these designers invest in their designs by creating a presentation so that you could give your honest opinion; as a jury member, you have the due diligence of judging these entries.
4. Jury Members promises to judge the entries without any prejudice and evaluate the designs instead of their presentations. As a jury member it is your duty to ensure you do not bring to the judging process any prejudice you might have against different design styles. You must focus on not to judge the design presentations; you should judge the designs themselves. To ensure entries are all judged based on their intrinsic qualities instead of their presentations, we have a preliminary phase where we require all entrants to follow strict guidelines and feedbacks to unify the presentations, we call this “presentation bias removal”, yet if you still think an entry does not have a good presentation, try not to focus on the presentation, but the design qualities instead.
5. Jury Members promises to judge the entries themselves . You cannot appoint your secretary, students, partners or any other third parties to do this task. You must especially judge the entries yourself since this particular task is designated just for you; you are trusted by the A’ Design Award and Competition based on your skillset, knowledge and biography; we cannot allow anyone else then you to vote for you. Legally speaking: From time to time, the Disclosing Party may disclose Confidential Information to the Receiving Party. The Receiving Party will not disclose this information to any other party. You cannot disclose the Confidential Information to your directors, officers, employees, agents or representatives (collectively “Representatives”).
6. Jury Members promises not to disclose any information about the entries you are voting to anyone, especially the PDF documents uploaded as a part of the entry process, could occasionally include trade secrets or technical details, you agree not to share these secrets with anyone. You are not permitted to make a copy of entries, to distribute them in digital mediums or to send to another colleague for any reason. If you are unable to judge an entry, you cannot ask others’ opinions. This condition continues after results announcement; some participants could ask us to withhold release of their design details. The only condition you could share an entry with others is if the entry is publicly announced as a winner, and even in this case you cannot share the PDF or any other details that were made available to jury only.
7. Jury Members shall not vote for people they know. You will disclose entries to us which you could identify the owner of: If you see an entry that you know the designer of, you disclose this to us by marking the item at voting section that says either “Recognized: i.e. if you I know the designer / owner / brand” or “Acquaintanced: If you personally know the designer / owner / brand”. If you state that you are Acquaintanced, “personally know the designer / owner / brand”, your vote will not be registered (for purposes of ranking and scoring) but saved in the system. If you choose “I know the designer / owner / brand “, in this case your vote will be stored (use detailed voting) but not registered and not accounted during ranking as well especially if you are the only person that identified the design, your vote will simply be discarded, but if many jury members marked “I know the designer”, your vote could be used since in some cases very famous world renown designers or brands enter their works, and in such cases usually all jury members “know the designer / owner / brand”, thus if this would be the case your vote will be counted and would affect the rankings.
8. Jury Members cannot misuse their position as a judge. You explicitly agree not to favor any particular entry during voting. You cannot use your jury member position as a power element or to create benefits to yourself. Given this condition, we do allow all jury members to state that they are jury members; you can advertise being an A’ Design Award Jury member, which is a prestigious aspect, however you cannot use your jury member position to drive benefits to yourself or those in your circle.
9. Jury Members promises not to get effected by “brands”; when you recognize a work from a famous brand, designer or company, we expect you to vote these designs and projects as same as all other entries. It is important for us that the competition does not have a bias towards particular “brands” which is seen in some other accolades; you should know and understand that any brand could come up with a great design, provided they have the right design team.
10. Jury Members will be careful with disqualification requests. You cannot disqualify designs by yourself automatically (of course please contact us if there is an item that needs instant attention), however we have a mechanism to disqualify designs by majority voting. If you wish to have a design disqualified, vote it regularly; you might as well give “zero” to all aspects; and afterwards choose the option “This entry should be disqualified” from the menu that is shown during voting. To the text box, enter why it should be disqualified. If more than 3 jury members agree that the design shall be disqualified, the system will automatically disqualify it. In case the design is not disqualified, by giving “zero” score for all judging criteria (or by giving zero score to all criteria that motivates disqualification), will ensure that the design would be ranked low, decreasing any chance to get a decent award status. Before requesting disqualification please support with proof about why an entry shall be disqualified.
11. Jury Members promises not to respond to vote begging. You will choose “This entry should be disqualified” and enter to the text box “because the designer, the pr agent or whoever contacted you” if some participant contacts you before or after the voting of the entries. We especially find this kind of “vote begging (prior voting)” and “hate mails (after voting) very inappropriate (and this happens about 0.5% (5 in 1000) of entries and could therefore happen to you); if this happens, just your single vote will be enough to disqualify the entry, if the entry is already awarded, we will not just cancel any award status but we will ensure these people could never participate as well. But please note that you might be asked to prove that an entrant has actually contacted you, if someone calls you (since this is the most common way), tell them you are busy and ask them to send an email, this way you could forward us the email and we will definitely disqualify the work.
12. Jury Members promises not to vote identifyable entries. If an entry includes identification details, it must be “disqualified” as we do not permit entries to include obvious identification. However some entries could be identifiable through logos, trademarks or just because of strong brand identities. In the first phase of the competition we do already “disqualify” entries that include obvious identification (such as name or contact details of participants, watermarks, logo or signature of designers), but we do not disqualify entries that are identifiable through integrated components (for example if a car logo is seen on the car, if a website design has the logo of the creator as it is part of the page, if a particular form is associated with a company, or the strong brand identity makes the object identifiable etc.). Thus please do not disqualify entries that are identifiable through these integrated elements or values; we have already filtered and disqualified others, but “disqualify” entries where for example contact information of designer, watermark or signature of designer, would be present etc. To do so choose “Identifiable” in the voting process, and to the box, type “how it is identifiable”. Regardless, in case of errors, please vote regularly for such entries as well. Do not assign “zero” scores.
13. Jury Members promises not to misuse disqualification or voting mechanisms. The disqualification and under-voting mechanisms shall never be used to create benefits to particular designs; you cannot under-vote majority of the projects; the system will automatically disqualify you if you vote all entries expect several as “zero”. This mechanism was developed to ensure that jury members cannot use their power to decrease scores of other designs in order to increase the standing of a particular entry.
14. Jury Members promises not to make a copy of the entry they are voting in digital or any other medium and if you do so, you must destroy it afterwards. This excludes the automated cache kept by your browser. After judging you shall delete and remove all documents relating to voting, especially the PDF documents (which are visible only to jury) that are submitted as part of the entries must be absolutely deleted after being read. If you could, use “incognito mode” while voting and clear your computer cache after voting. Never vote from a public computer. Legally Speaking: Return of Confidential Information. : Jury Member shall immediately return and redeliver to the A’ Design Awards all tangible material embodying the Confidential Information provided hereunder and all notes, summaries, memoranda, drawings, manuals, records, excerpts or derivative information deriving there from and all other documents or materials (“Notes”) (and all copies of any of the foregoing, including “copies” that have been converted to computerized media in the form of image, data or word processing files either manually or by image capture) based on or including any Confidential Information, in whatever form of storage or retrieval, upon the earlier of (i) the completion or termination of the dealings between the parties contemplated hereunder; (ii) the termination of this Agreement; or (iii) at such time as the Disclosing Party may so request; provided however that the Receiving Party may retain such of its documents as is necessary to enable it to comply with its document retention policies. Alternatively, the Receiving Party, with the written consent of the Disclosing Party may (or in the case of Notes, at the Receiving Party’s option) immediately destroy any of the foregoing embodying Confidential Information (or the reasonably nonrecoverable data erasure of computerized data) and, upon request, certify in writing such destruction by an authorized officer of the Receiving Party supervising the destruction).
15. Jury Members promises not to prevail the scores they assigned for entries. After the judging process, you cannot let anyone know how & what you voted for any design entry (except the A’ Design Award Advisory Board and the Coordinator); we put this condition especially to ensure a jury member cannot gain benefits post-voting by disclosing any non-requested favors. This condition also ensures that you would not get pressure as a jury member from any influential or important people. While you could not state your exact vote, you could of course as a jury member state your personal opinion about any designs you voted, provided that these designs are made publicly visible. I.e. this means you can never disclosure opinion about disqualified, withdrawn, eliminated or concealed entries; this condition protects designers of entries that were not awarded or that were concealed.
16. Jury Members promises to vote entries professionally. Please take your time to vote on entries in a professional manner. Especially please do not rush or skim entry details; you should download any attached PDF, video, and check any relevant websites and read all the text relating to an entry. Do never vote on an entry if you do not understand it clearly, however there could be some cases that you would actually not understand what an entry is about, in this case, click on “pass the entry” and choose “I did not understand this entry” as reason. This way, we will not save your score, and the entry could be voted by others.
17. Jury Members' Non-Disclosure; as a jury member, you explicitly agree to not to disclose any information, secret or detail regarding an entry; you are responsible for any and all potential damages, and will be responsible for any information leaks. You must understand that the jury is the “weak link” in the security we have for the awarding process, do your best to ensure that the intellectual properties, ideas and designs submitted are kept concealed.
18. Jury Members state that their information is once again true and correct. You state once again that the information you had provided us during jury application is correct and true; i.e. you are who you state you are; your CV is as you state and your name or affiliations are correct. We will take all legal measures if we discover that your jury application was counterfeit. We are sorry to write this section.
19. Jury Members promises not to have a "secret agenda": You will not disclosure information about the judging process to third parties. You cannot use your role as a judge to learn our methods, procedures and processes; we had spent reasonable time and effort to design the voting mechanisms, processes and procedures (our intellectual properties), these are our “trade secrets”, you agree not to teach or disclose to any third party or use yourself our “trade secrets” for your benefits. You cannot copy our judging process and control panels or evaluation system in any condition. You are not allowed to use or access jury panel if you have any secret agenda other than fairly voting entries. For example, you are not permitted to vote on entries if you are affiliated with other design competitions or awards, you cannot become a jury member just to learn how the entry system works, this (the entry voting system) is a product, an intellectual property we developed over years of research, we do not need you as a jury member if your intention is just about copying our mechanisms, if we would discover that this would be the case we will take all legal action against you. We would not believe nor permit you to vote on entries if you have a secret agenda other than truly voting the designs.
20. Jury Members are kindly invited to provide feedbacks for voting criteria. Before voting entries, for each section and award category, we will ask you to input your ideas about the judging process and evaluation criteria. We give significant value for your input regarding how entries shall be judged, please kindly take your time to fill the survey at the beginning of voting sessions so that we could improve the competition methodology and procedures. This ensures that the evaluation criteria is always contemporary and relevant.
21. Jury Members are kindly invited not to use the "fast voting" methods. There is a fast voting method reserved for “very important people” who absolutely have little time for anything, please do not use this method unless you are obliged to; i.e. if you have very limited time, you could use the fast-voting method, but this method is not preferred since it does not create enough value for entrants. The regular method allows us to capture your votes for each criteria, and helps us to prepare a score sheet, and of course also allows you to enter your feedbacks. In return we share these with entrants so they could benchmark and improve themselves. We would prefer if you could use the “slow” method when voting entries.
22. Jury Members understand we will use their names in our communications. We must outright state that you shall agree that we use your name to market the competition. We especially choose the most prominent designers, established scholars, and influential press members as jury members of the A’ Design Award & Competition; this increases value to our entrants by creating prestige for the whole event. By becoming a jury member, you must understand that we will use your name and a profile image, to co-brand the event, to increase its credibility and prestige. We will include your name in A’ Design Award webpage and communication, including but not limited to our yearbook. Likewise, as a jury member you can use your status as an A’ Design Award jury member, you can of course showcase the jury certificate or any other item related to your status.
23. Jury Members promises not to use information gained here in a different manner. The Jury Member agrees to use the Confidential Information solely in connection with the current or contemplated role as a jury panel member in the A’ Design Award and Competition and not for any purpose other than as authorized by this Agreement without the prior written consent of an authorized representative of the A’ Design Award and Competition.
24. Jury Members are not given license over entries. No other right or license, whether expressed or implied, in the Confidential Information is granted to the Jury Member hereunder. Title to the Confidential Information will remain solely in the A’ Design Awards. All use of Confidential Information by the Jury Member shall be for the benefit of the Disclosing Party and any modifications and improvements thereof by the Jury Member shall be the sole property of the Disclosing Party.
25. Jury Members promises not to use ideas or designs they voted. Jury Members must clearly agree that they cannot use the ideas, designs, projects, concepts and systems submitted to the A’ Design Award & Competition, for which they have evaluated as a jury member; i.e. Jury Members cannot make any modifications or improvements to the Disclosed Information, or use it for any purposes whatsoever without explicit written and signed agreement by the A’ Design Awards.
26. Jury Members are kindly invited to provide feedback to entries. Jury Members are allowed and encouraged to provide feedbacks to the competition participants, as long as feedbacks are constructive and positive. In no condition a Jury Member is allowed to communicate or take part-in hostile and insulting interaction, hate-speech, rudeness or use controversial / destructive tone against entrants. We expect all jury members to be calm, even in extreme situations, and we shall be contacted if there is a particular entry that is “disturbing / negative” in any sense.
27. Jury Members agree to release their Intellectual Property rights for any feedbacks they give. When Jury Members provide feedbacks to the participants and their designs, Jury Members could occasionally create new intellectual properties. Jury members agree to release these newly generated intellectual property rights of these ideas, suggestions, incremental innovations, designs, schematics, and any other intellectual properties to A’ Design Awards. A’ Design Awards, will then be able to release the information or newly generated intellectual properties to the entrants.
28. Jury Members promises to keep the agreement forever. You are bound with this agreement forever, you cannot disclose any confidential information you obtained as your role as a jury member in future. Legally speaking: Notwithstanding the foregoing, the parties’ duty to hold in confidence Confidential Information that was disclosed during term shall remain in effect indefinitely.
29. Jury Members understands they will be liable if they leak information. If you, as a Jury Member release or disseminate the Entrant’s information, you will be held responsible. Legally speaking: Remedies : Both parties acknowledge that the Confidential Information to be disclosed hereunder is of a unique and valuable character, and that the unauthorized dissemination of the Confidential Information would destroy or diminish the value of such information. The damages to Disclosing Party that would result from the unauthorized dissemination of the Confidential Information would be impossible to calculate. Therefore, both parties hereby agree that the Disclosing Party shall be entitled to injunctive relief preventing the dissemination of any Confidential Information in violation of the terms hereof. Such injunctive relief shall be in addition to any other remedies available hereunder, whether at law or in equity. Disclosing Party shall be entitled to recover its costs and fees, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, incurred in obtaining any such relief. Further, in the event of litigation relating to this Agreement, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses.
30. Compelled Disclosure of Confidential Information : Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing to the contrary, the Jury Member may disclose Confidential Information pursuant to any governmental, judicial, or administrative order, subpoena, discovery request, regulatory request or similar method, provided that the Jury Member promptly notifies, to the extent practicable, the Disclosing Party in writing of such demand for disclosure so that the Disclosing Party, at its sole expense, may seek to make such disclosure subject to a protective order or other appropriate remedy to preserve the confidentiality of the Confidential Information; provided in the case of a broad regulatory request with respect to the Jury Member’s business (not targeted at Disclosing Party), the Jury Member may promptly comply with such request provided the Jury Member give (if permitted by such regulator) the Disclosing Party prompt notice of such disclosure. The Jury Member agrees that it shall not oppose and shall cooperate with efforts by, to the extent practicable, the Disclosing Party with respect to any such request for a protective order or other relief. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the Disclosing Party is unable to obtain or does not seek a protective order and the Jury Member is legally requested or required to disclose such Confidential Information, disclosure of such Confidential Information may be made without liability.
31. No Conflict of Self-Interest: To ensure the impartiality and integrity of the competition, jury members are strictly prohibited from participating in the competition or nominating their own works in the categories they will be evaluating, for the competition edition or year they are jury members of. For ethics considerations, as well as to protect the brand and reputation of the competition, jury members are strictly prohibited from entering any works to the categories they will be evaluating even if the jurors do not vote and pass on their own works, for the competition edition or year they are jury members of. Jury Members legally promise not to use their jury nomination tickets or nominate their works to the categories that they will be voting for and agree to pay 100.000 EUR as a penalty, for each and every violation, in case the juror have positively voted their designs and 25.000 penalty in case the juror did not voted their own designs but have joined and nominated a design for a category which they would be voting for.
32. No Friendly Voting: Jury members are also required to refrain from using their position to advance the interests of themselves, their colleagues, or their acquaintances. Instead, they should impartially assess and evaluate the entries based on their merit and without any bias or favoritism. This rule aims to promote transparency, fairness, and professionalism in the competition, while upholding the highest ethical standards of judging.
33. Notice of Breach: Jury Member shall notify the A’ Design Awards immediately upon discovery of any unauthorized use or disclosure of Confidential Information by Jury Member or any other breach of this Agreement by Jury Member and will cooperate with efforts by the A’ Design Awards to help the A’ Design Awards regain possession of Confidential Information and prevent its further unauthorized use.
34. Jury Members agrees to hold A' Design Awards harmless. Jury Member agrees to hold the A’ Design Awards free from the responsibility for any liability or damage that might arise out of the role of being a Jury Member of A’ Design Awards. This also includes for example if the Jury Member uses the Confidential Information in any way or if the Jury Member Breaches the Confidential Information or the Agreement.
35. Jury Members agree to be honest about their capacity to judge entries. If you feel you lack the experience or knowhow to fairly judge a design, please pass this project. On the menu select "I am unable to judge this entry / I do not have the necessary experience". This ensures that you do not over-vote or under-vote entries. Our studies show that when jury members are not able to judge the designs, they make their scores based on presentations. We do not wish this to happen.
36. No Workshops: Jury members are explicitly not allowed to make courses, classes, lessons or workshops to teach how to get A' Design Award. Jurors are forbidden from voting any entry they recognize. Especially, under no circumstance Jury Members cannot imply let alone guarantee winning any design award for participation of such courses, classes, lessons or workshops.
37. No Social Media Posting: Jury members are explicitly not allowed to post to their social media any judging process, this is especially relevant because there are participants that nominate trade secrets as well as patent pending or not yet patented products that have to be kept secret, by making any such social media posts you may risk damages to such participants as such you agree to also be responsible all damages you may cause to third parties, not just to A' Design Award. Do not post to social media any images, photos, screenshots during voting. All Jurors agree to not take photos, screenshots or snapshots of the voting process let alone sharing them online or offline, let it be publicly or privately.
38. No Circular Voting: Jurors are prohibited from voting in a manner that could be seen as favoritism towards any particular design or designer, or engaging in any form of collusion or vote trading with other jurors. This includes but is not limited to giving high scores to designs submitted by friends or colleagues, consistently giving high scores to a particular designer without regard for the merits of their design, or engaging in any other behavior that could be seen as a conflict of interest or an attempt to manipulate the results of the competition. Jurors who engage in inappropriate voting behavior will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including removal from the competition, disqualification from future competitions, and potential legal action.
39. No Multiple Accounts: To ensure fairness and impartiality in the judging process, all jurors are required to have only one active account on our platform. Creating multiple accounts with the intention of obtaining multiple nomination tickets and/or voting on designs using more than one juror account is strictly prohibited. Any violations of this rule will result in immediate disqualification of the designs and possible suspension or termination of the user's account, alternatively we reserve right to cancel your votes, have the designs revoted, charge you for omega entry tickets and express judging service fees which you agree to pay within 30 days. We reserve the right to investigate any suspicious activity related to juror accounts and take appropriate actions to maintain the integrity of our platform. Only one entity from each distinct organization is allowed to participate in our jury. If multiple individuals from the same company, design studio or organization apply as jurors, this is considered Multiple Account violation.
40. 100 Votes Required: You are required to fulfill your duties by voting on a minimum of 100 entries during each jury session for which you are considered a juror. Failure to do so will result in the cancellation of any unused nomination tickets assigned to you. If you have used any of the assigned tickets, you will be charged for them. By accepting to serve as a juror, you acknowledge that your active participation and commitment to voting on a minimum of 100 entries is essential to ensuring the integrity of the design competition and the fairness of the judging process. Your failure to meet this requirement may result in a negative impact on the quality and reputation of the overall competition.
41. Monitoring and Analysis: The A’ Design Award reserves the right to monitor juror voting behavior throughout the evaluation process to ensure adherence to the competition's ethical guidelines and maintain a fair voting environment. The organization may employ various methods, including but not limited to decoy entries, variance analysis, honey traps, and inspection, to identify and address instances of voting fraud or misconduct. Jurors are expected to comply with these monitoring efforts and acknowledge that any violation of the agreement may result in corrective action, including the potential removal from the jury and the invalidation of their votes. By signing the jury agreement, jurors demonstrate their commitment to upholding the high standards of the A’ Design Award and contributing to a fair and meritocratic competition.
42. No Compete and Non Disclosure: Jury Members agree not to help reverse engineer A' Design Award voting systems, methodology and sharing methods and agree not to share inner workings of A' Design Award voting panel and juror specific functionality with any third parties.
43. No Partnership: Jury Members agree that being a Jury Member is not partnership. Jurors are especially asked not to use Partnership, Authorized Entity, Representative or other similar language that is deceitful in their nature when communicating their relation to the accolades.
44. Non Compete and No Conflict of Interest: Jury Members cannot be founder, owner or partner of other design awards or competitions (with the exception of government initiatives as well as university competitions as well as free to join accolades organized by non-profit organizations). Jury Members agree not to create a new design award business, at least within 3 years after their jury membership. Jury Members further agree not to share the judging process details with other design competitions.
45. Keep Procedures Confidential : Jury Members agree not to share the judging process details with any third party, designer or businesses. Jury Members especially agree not to share judging process details with other design awards and competitions.
46. Juror Image Sharing : Before voting begins, A' Design Awards may provide Jury Members with an infographics or image that could be used to share their Jury Membership status in social media, sharing this video is important to be eligible for one of the digital nomination tickets provided to jurors, and not sharing the video would result in either cancellation of one of the nomination tickets, and if the ticket is used, the entity (not necessarily the juror) who used the ticket will be charged, and explained that the ticket was cancelled due to jury member not sharing their juror status and image in social media.
47. Immediate Relief: If A’ Design Award understands that you are in breach of this contract, especially including but not limited to releasing confidential information of participants and the voting interface, we reserve right to (a) Charge you for any services and benefits provided to you as a jury member such as the aggregate cost of nomination tickets. For calculation of the Nomination Tickets, it will not be important if such tickets were used or not used. You will be charged for Omega Entry Period Professional Entry Tickets for Business Consortium Account Type [ Application Fee (Omega, Business Consortium), Professional Entry, Business Consortium Account Type, Preliminary Score Unindicated, Omega Application Period ], for each nomination ticket that had been assigned to you. We reserve right to make a discount on this based on your compliance to any cease-and-desist letter we may have send you regarding the breaches. (b) If you had received your juror’s kit, you will be asked to send it back among with all items included and/or get charged for Duplicate Winner Kit with Shipping product cost. You will also be asked to pay any shipping fees we may have already paid for it. (c) You will also be charged for each and every cease-and-desist letter, legal communique and notification that has been sent to you, with the pricing of Legal Correspondence item as noted in our account services page. (d) We reserve the right to revoke your Jury Membership as well as to publicly announce your Jury Membership status cancellation and/or removal and/or disqualification. (e) Our Immediate Relief does not stop us from taking further legal action from you, including but not limited to seeking further damages and relief for reputation and business lost, for copyright and intellectual property infringement, for breaking our non-disclosure agreement, and for creating damages or costs to our participants, directly or indirectly.
48. Eligibility and Qualification of Jurors : Jurors must meet at least one of the following criteria to qualify for the A’ Design Award: (a) Professional Experience: A minimum of five years of relevant professional experience in design, production, curation, or business management within the creative industries, as evidenced by professional accomplishments, business achievements, or sustainable management practices. (b) Academic Contributions: Academics should hold a position at a recognized institution in a relevant field, with a track record of research, publication, or significant contributions to design education or related disciplines. (c) Journalistic Contributions: Journalists should have a substantial history of reporting or commentary in design, innovation, or related fields, supported by publications in reputable media outlets. (d) Entrepreneurial Experience: Entrepreneurs must demonstrate significant experience in managing or founding companies and/or R&D or design departments within institutions with a primary focus on design, innovation, or creative services, showcasing their ability to bring a practical business perspective to the jury. (e) All candidates must have an unblemished record of ethical conduct in their professional, academic, or business dealings for at least the past five years.
49. Background Verification : The Organizer reserves the right to conduct background checks to verify the accuracy of the qualifications and ethical compliance declared by the potential jurors. This process may include, but is not limited to, reviews of public records, professional and academic histories, and references. The background check may also screen for any past ethical breaches, including plagiarism, professional misconduct, or fraudulent activities that would undermine the juror’s ability to impartially and professionally judge the entries.
50. Identity Verification : All jurors are required to submit a high-resolution, color copy of a valid, government-issued photo identification (ID) as part of the juror application process. Acceptable forms of ID include passports, national ID cards, or driver’s licenses. The photo ID is required to verify the identity of each juror, ensuring that all individuals granted access to confidential and proprietary information, including trade secrets of enterprises, brands, institutions, companies as well as designers and architects are accurately identified and authenticated. The ID number and other relevant details on the photo ID will be used exclusively for compliance purposes, to monitor jurors’ performance in respect to their role in judging entries, and for enforcing the terms of the juror's agreement.
51. Signed Declaration: Applicants will be required to submit a signed declaration attesting to their ethical compliance and absence of conflicts of interest relevant to the roles and responsibilities of the jury, as well as their complete agreement and adherence to the juror's agreement.
52. No Derivative Works: Original Works are any original design, concept, or intellectual property submitted to the A' Design Award. Jurors agree that any Derivative Works (Derivative Works are defined as any creations that may be based upon, derived from, or inspired by the Original Works submitted by entrants, which may include modifications, enhancements, adaptations, or other changes made to the Original Works by jurors) they create during the judging process or thereafter that are based on or inspired by Original Works encountered as part of their duties as jurors shall remain the intellectual property of the original entrant. Jurors are prohibited from using any knowledge or information derived from Original Works to create Derivative Works for their personal or commercial use, without the explicit written consent of the original owner of the Intellectual Property. In the event that a juror unintentionally creates a Derivative Work inspired by an Original Work, the juror must disclose such creation to A' Design Award, which will mediate an agreement between the juror and the original entrant to determine the use and ownership of the Derivative Work, ensuring fair compensation and recognition to the original owner. Jurors may be required to compensate the original entrant as well as A' Design Award for any financial or reputational damage caused by the unauthorized use of the Original Works or creation of Derivative Works.
53. No Derivative Works, No Use, No Display: Jurors are strictly prohibited from using, sharing, or disclosing any intellectual property related to Original Works outside of their role in the competition without prior written permission from the original owner. This includes, but is not limited to, using the intellectual property for the juror's own commercial purposes, educational uses, or public displays. Jurors agree to a confidentiality clause that extends indefinitely beyond the duration of their term as jurors, which includes a prohibition on the use of any confidential information, trade secrets, or proprietary knowledge gained during the competition in a way that could potentially harm or exploit the original creators of the works.
54. Non-Discrimination and Impartiality in Judging : Jurors must refrain from letting personal, political, racial, national, gender-based, or familial relationships influence their judgments. All decisions must be made solely based on the merit of the entries as defined by the competition’s established criteria. We do not allow (a) Political Affiliation Bias: Judging influenced by a participant’s political beliefs or affiliations. (b) Racial/Ethnic Bias: Any preferential treatment or discrimination based on race or ethnicity. (c) Gender Bias: Discrimination or favoritism based on gender or sexual orientation. (d) Nepotism: Favoritism towards family members or close associates in a manner that conflicts with fair and impartial judgment. (e) Country-Specific Bias: Preferential treatment or discrimination based on a participant's country of origin. (f) Conflict of Interest: A situation where the juror’s personal interest might interfere, or appear to interfere, with the unbiased judgment of the competition’s entries.
55. Initial Dispute Resolution: The parties agree to engage in good faith negotiations to resolve any disputes, disagreements, or claims arising out of or relating to this Agreement within thirty (30) days of written notification of the dispute. Each party shall appoint a designated representative who has full authority to negotiate and settle the dispute.
56. Mediation: If the dispute cannot be resolved through direct negotiations, the parties agree to participate in mediation before a neutral mediator at any mediation center in Milano, Italy or Como, Italy, as selected by the A' Design Awards. Mediation shall commence within sixty (60) days of the failure of negotiations, unless both parties agree in writing to an extension. The costs of mediation shall be shared equally between the parties.
57. Arbitration: Should mediation fail to resolve the dispute, the parties agree that the dispute shall be resolved by binding arbitration under the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The arbitration shall be conducted by one arbitrator, selected in accordance with the ICC rules. The place of arbitration shall be Como, Italy, and the arbitration shall be conducted in English. The arbitrator’s decision shall be final and binding on the parties, and the parties agree to abide by and perform any award rendered by the arbitrator. The award may be confirmed and enforced in any court of competent jurisdiction.
58. Governing Law: This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Italy, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. Any legal action or proceeding arising under this Agreement shall be brought exclusively in the courts located in Como, Italy, and the parties hereby irrevocably consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue therein.
59. Legal Fees: In the event of arbitration or litigation relating to this Agreement, A' Design Award and Competition shall be entitled to recover from the juror its reasonable attorney’s fees, costs, and expenses in addition to any other relief to which it may be entitled.
60. Restriction on Use of Information: Jurors are expressly prohibited from using any information gained during the judging process, including but not limited to design names, project functions, and descriptions, for any purpose other than their official duties within this competition. This includes, but is not limited to, the prohibition of using such information to contact entrants, promote external events, or solicit entrants for other competitions, businesses, or services.
61. Non-Solicitation: During the term of their engagement as jurors and for a period of two (2) years thereafter, jurors must not directly or indirectly solicit any entrants or potential entrants to the A' Design Award for participation in other competitions or services. This restriction applies irrespective of whether the information was obtained directly through the jury process or indirectly through subsequent identification methods such as internet searches based on competition details.
62. Non-Competition: Jurors are forbidden from engaging in or affiliating with any competitive events or awards that may directly compete with or mimic the structure, purpose, or business of the A' Design Award. This includes not participating in the administration, promotion, or execution of such competing awards for a period of two (2) years following the end of their term as jurors.
63. Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure: Jurors must sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that specifically includes provisions regarding the confidentiality of the entrants’ information, competition details, and results until public release. Any unauthorized disclosure, accidental or intentional, will result in immediate legal action and potential financial penalties.
64. Monetary Penalties and Remedial Actions for Unauthorized Use of Information: (a) Monetary Penalties: In the event of a breach of this Agreement where a juror uses competition information to solicit entrants for other competitions, awards, events, workshops or any other purpose, a fixed penalty of €50,000 will be imposed for each instance of solicitation. This penalty is intended to reflect the serious nature of the breach and the potential damage to the A' Design Award’s reputation and competitive position. (b) Refund Obligation: Jurors found to have breached this agreement must also compensate any affected designers by refunding any fees those designers paid to participate in the unauthorized competition. This refund must be made within 30 days of the breach being confirmed. (c) Mandatory Apology: The juror must issue a formal apology to any designer they solicited, with the content of the apology subject to approval by the A' Design Award administration. This apology must clearly state that the juror acted independently and without endorsement from the A' Design Award, aiming to minimize confusion and restore faith in the A' Design Award’s handling of entrants' proprietary information. (d) Notification and Compliance Confirmation: Jurors are required to provide proof of compliance with the refund and apology requirements to the A' Design Award administration. Failure to provide satisfactory proof within the specified timeframe will result in additional penalties and potential legal action.(e) Further Legal Recourse: The A' Design Award reserves the right to take further legal action for any additional damages caused by the juror’s actions that exceed the fixed penalty amount. This may include, but is not limited to, claims for loss of business, damage to reputation, and legal costs associated with addressing the breach.
65. Monitoring and Enforcement: The A' Design Award reserves the right to monitor compliance with all stipulations through both technical means and internal auditing procedures. Jurors agree to cooperate with any investigations, including but not limited to providing access to emails, documents, and other materials as legally required by the investigation team.
66. Penalties for Breach: Violation of this agreement will result in immediate disqualification from the jury, a demand for return of any compensation received from the A' Design Award, and the pursuit of further legal remedies, including claims for damages and injunctive relief. A specific penalty structure will be established, taking into account the nature of the breach and the damages caused to the A' Design Award and its participants.
67. Legal Action and Jurisdiction: Any disputes or legal proceedings resulting from a breach of these terms will be subject to the laws of Italy and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in Como, Italy. Jurors consent to this jurisdiction and agree to participate in legal proceedings in Italy without objections.
68. No Waiver: The failure or delay by any party to enforce any provisions of this Agreement or to exercise any right under this Agreement shall not be construed as a waiver of such provisions or right and shall not affect the validity of this Agreement or any part thereof, or the right thereafter to enforce each and every provision. Any failure by either party to enforce the other party’s strict performance of any provision of this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of its right to subsequently enforce such provision or any other provision of this Agreement
69. Entire Understanding: This Agreement constitutes the entire understanding between the parties and supersedes any and all prior or contemporaneous understandings and agreements, whether oral or written, between the parties, with respect to the subject matter hereof. This Agreement can only be modified by a written amendment signed by the party against whom enforcement of such modification is sought. That being said, the jurors must also abide by the A' Design Award & Competition's general Terms and Conditions.
70. Although the restrictions contained in this Agreement are considered by the parties to be reasonable for the purpose of protecting the Confidential Information, if any such restriction is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable, such provision will be modified, rewritten or interpreted to include as much of its nature and scope as will render it enforceable. If it cannot be so modified, rewritten or interpreted to be enforceable in any respect, it will not be given effect, and the remainder of the Agreement will be enforced as if such provision was not included.
71. This Agreement is personal in nature, and neither party may directly or indirectly assign or transfer it by operation of law or otherwise without the prior written consent of the other party, which consent will not be unreasonably withheld. All obligations contained in this Agreement shall extend to and be binding upon the parties to this Agreement and their respective successors, assigns and designees.
72. Any notices or communications required or permitted to be given hereunder may be delivered by hand, deposited with a nationally recognized overnight carrier, electronic-mail, or mailed by certified mail, return receipt requested, postage prepaid, in each case, to the address of the other party first indicated above (or such other addressee as may be furnished by a party in accordance with this paragraph). All such notices or communications shall be deemed to have been given and received (a) in the case of personal delivery or electronic-mail, on the date of such delivery, (b) in the case of delivery by a nationally recognized overnight carrier, on the third business day following dispatch and (c) in the case of mailing, on the seventh business day following such mailing.
73. The receipt of Confidential Information pursuant to this Agreement will not prevent or in any way limit the Jury Member from: (i) developing, making or marketing products or services that are or may be competitive with the products or services they vote for; or (ii) providing products or services to others who compete with the voted entries as long as the newly developed products do not use the Confidential Information as a basis of “strong inspiration”; i.e. Jury Members can develop competitive products in the category they vote for (and of course in other categories they do not vote for), but they cannot for example take any design they vote and make (or improve) a product based on any design they voted for. The decision whether a Jury Member did such an action “strong inspiration” shall be made by A’ Design Awards’ Advisory Board in case of any conflicts. Jury Members agree that A’ Design Awards have capacity to fairly judge if such action was taken or not by themselves in case of any issues.
74. Paragraph headings used in this Agreement are for reference only and shall not be used or relied upon in the interpretation of this Agreement.
75. You agree that you have read and agreed on the terms above. By proceeding further by judging and voting entries, you will be legally and ethically bound, as an A' Design Award Jury Member, by this Agreement. Please do contact us if you have any issues with our jury membership terms and conditions, or if you would contribute with further ideas and conditions to make the system more efficient and more importantly more ethical or if you would need clarifications.