Definitions
“Contractual Software” means any software under this Agreement, including its adjustments. It also includes the respective object code and source code in all development, interim and final stages and the associated documentation, as well as all necessary materials such as analyses, requirements specifications and/or functional specifications, concepts and descriptions.
“Confidential Information” means information a prudent third party would consider as worth being protected or that is identified as confidential; it may also include information becoming known during an oral presentation or discussion. Confidential Information shall be used for the purpose of meeting the contractual duties only. The duty of confidentiality shall not apply to information of which the parties have lawful knowledge or that becomes known beyond the contractual duties without breach of any duty of confidentiality.
“Contractual Service” means all Contractual Services (e.g. Contractual Software, consulting, Support).
“Support” means Provider’s fee-based provision of services for troubleshooting, patches and the availability at the agreed Support hours in German and English language.
“System Environment” means the contractually agreed technical, local and functional-organisational environment in which the Contractual Software is made available in an operational condition.
Granting of Rights of Use to Contractual Services
- All rights of use under copyright and other intellectual property rights or other rights existing before the issue of the respective order shall remain in the sole and exclusive possession of the respective holder as applicable from time to time. In connection with the performance of services, however, the rights necessary in each case to use the scope of services described in this Agreement shall be transferred to the other contracting party as non-exclusive right of use for the required period of time.
- Unless provided otherwise, the Provider shall also be entitled exclusively to all rights of use under copyright and other intellectual property rights or other rights to the Contractual Services of any type, whatsoever (including the right to apply for registration as patent, design patent or trademark), which are generated in performing Contractual Services.
- Provider shall grant to Customer the geographically unrestricted and – unless provided otherwise in the individual agreement – non-exclusive right to use the Contractual Services as of the time of their generation for Customer to use them as contractually agreed for the necessary period of time. Customer shall not have the right to transfer the right of use and/or to modify work results, except for the further transfer of permanently acquired software licences in accordance with the exemption provision in Part B.
- Customer shall not have the right to file for registration of intellectual property rights to Contractual Services.
Customer’s Duties to Cooperate
- Customer shall support Provider in performing the due services particularly as follows:
- Customer obtained information on the functional characteristics, the designated use and the possible use environment of the software and shall bear the risk that they will meet its wishes and requirements.
- The set-up of a functional System Environment for Provider’s Contractual Services in accordance with Provider’s specifications shall be Customer’s responsibility, unless agreed otherwise.
- If work is to be carried out within Customer’s buildings, Customer shall make available to Provider adequate workplaces, including the necessary infrastructure, information, documentation, data, computer programmes and other means, and shall allow Provider’s employees to get access to rooms, computers and the System Environment as required.
- If the subject matter of contract is the implementation of a project, Customer shall appoint a project manager responsible for the project on behalf of Customer and as main contact for Provider in all project matters, e.g. for the coordination of dates for the Customer. If the person acting as project manager changes, Customer shall inform Provider thereof without delay.
- Customer shall make available data to be migrated, if any, in the form defined by Provider.
- If required, Customer shall make available staff, workspaces, IT systems, data and telecommunication equipment free of cost. Customer shall allow Provider to get access to the System Environment directly and by way of remote data transmission.
- Customer shall cooperate in tests on functionality, integration and user acceptance.
- Customer shall backup the data according to the state of the art on a regular basis. In particular, Customer shall ensure by way of daily backup copies of all data that such data can be reconstructed from machine-readable data material with a reasonable effort and expense.
Liability
- Provider’s liability for the culpable breach of material contractual duties shall be limited to the amount of the damage typical of the contract, i.e. such damage the occurrence of which each contracting party had to reckon with at the time of contract formation based on the circumstances known to it at that time. Based on the circumstances known to them at the time of contract formation, the contracting parties to the individual agreements shall determine the amount of the damage typical of the contract. If the contracting parties do not reach agreement on the damage typical of the contract, the damage typical of the contract shall be equivalent to 100% of the contract volume.
- Provider shall not be liable for the indirect consequential damages of Customer, including, but not limited to lacking economic success, damages due to interruptions of operation, and lost profit.
- For damages resulting from loss of data, Provider shall be liable pursuant to paragraph 1 above only in the amount of the typical recovery costs, i.e. not for damages that could have been avoided by way of Customer’s regular data backup described in § 7 (4).
- The aforementioned limitations of liability shall also apply mutatis mutandis to the personal liability of the employees and agents of Provider.
- Provider’s liability for injuries with lethal consequences or resulting in physical disability or damage to health caused by a negligent or intentional breach of duty by Provider, its legal representative or vicarious agent or for other damages caused by a grossly negligent or intentional breach of duty by Provider, its legal representative or vicarious agent, as well as for damages caused by the breach of copyrights or other third-party property rights and for claims based on the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz) shall not be affected by the preceding limitations of liability.
- Any claims of Customer against Provider for damage compensation or refund of expenses beyond the foregoing shall be excluded even if based on competing claims founded in tort.
Warranty
- Damage claims shall be inapplicable in case of an insignificant deviation from the agreed or required quality or just insignificant impairment of the fitness for use. Product descriptions shall not be deemed guarantees, unless upon separate written agreement.
- If Customer claims subsequent performance due to a defect, Provider has the right to opt for either subsequent improvement, replacement delivery or replacement service. If after the fruitless lapse of a first deadline Customer set two additional reasonable periods of grace for Provider again to no avail, Customer may – subject to the legal prerequisites – opt for either terminating the contract or reducing the price and claim damage compensation or refund of expenses. Subsequent performance may also be provided by way of delivery or installation of a new programme version or a workaround. If the defect does not affect the functionality or does so to a merely insignificant extent, Provider shall have the right – to the exclusion of other claims for defects – to remedy the defect by way of delivery of a new version or an update in the course of its version/update/upgrade scheduling.
- For Customer’s damage claims it is required that Customer complied with its duties to inspect and notify pursuant to sec. 377 HGB (German Commercial Code) in a proper and prompt manner and that Customer does not treat the Contractual Services improperly and does not use software in a defective or incompatible hardware or software environment or alter Contractual Services without authorisation.
- The period of limitation for defect claims is one year and starts upon the delivery of the Contractual Services to the Customer.
Third-Party Rights
- The designated use of the Contractual Services does not breach any rights of third parties.
- Taking into consideration the limitation provisions in this Agreement, Provider shall indemnify and hold Customer harmless from and against all damages and costs attributable to Customer’s breach of third-party rights as a result of the designated use of the Contractual Services. Condition for this is that Customer informs Provider without delay of the extra-judicial or judicial assertion of claims by third parties for an alleged breach of property rights by Provider’s services, that Customer leaves the entire legal defence to Provider, and that Customer supports Provider in defending against such claims to a reasonable extent.
Non-Disclosure, Data Protection (Privacy), Duty of Loyalty
- The contracting parties mutually agree – also beyond the term of this Agreement – to protect Confidential Information as if it were own trade and business secrets.
- The contracting parties agree – also beyond the term of this Agreement – to use Confidential Information only and exclusively for the performance of this Agreement and the provision of the Contractual Services. In no event shall any of the contracting parties have the right to disclose Confidential Information to third parties who are not staff of the contracting party’s business organisation.
- Customer shall make available Confidential Information of Provider only to those employees who need to know it for the performance of the tasks assigned to them. Such information may be disclosed to third parties – e.g. in connection with maintenance work, inspections or the like – only if such third parties enter into a confidentiality agreement committing themselves to a degree of confidentiality that is at least equivalent to the confidentiality agreed upon in this Agreement. Confidential Information of Provider must not by any means be disclosed to competitors of Customer.
- After the end of the project, each party shall return all documents, copies etc. to the other party, which it was provided by the other party only on a temporary basis. None of the parties is entitled to any right of retention to Confidential Information.
- The parties shall observe the data protection regulations as applicable from time to time.
- The parties agree to apply mutual loyalty. They shall refrain from enticing away employees of the other contracting party or from taking measures of any type, whatsoever, directly or indirectly, to encourage employees of the other party in this respect or that could result in an employment. This mutual duty of loyalty shall survive the end of the Agreement for a period of one year.
IT Security
- In accordance with the standards applicable from time to time, the parties shall take adequate IT security precautions to protect the systems against any unauthorised third-party access. This particularly includes regular data backups.
- Customer is not entitled to request access to rooms, servers or other system components of Provider in principle. This shall not affect rights of access of Provider’s data protection officer upon written notification to inspect the compliance with the requirements pursuant to the applicable data protection provisions.