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Terms and Conditions

General Terms

TERMS OF USE
By accessing or using the Silk Matters™ website, the Silk Matters™ service, or any applications (including mobile applications) made available by Silk Matters™ (together, the “Service”), however accessed, you agree to be bound by these terms of use (“Terms of Use”). The Service is owned and controlled by Silk Matters™. You are suggested to go through these terms before using Silk Matters™. These Terms of Use affect your legal rights and obligations. Silk Matters™ holds the right to alter, modify, change, withdraw or eliminate the website i.e. www.silkmatters.com at any time without providing prior information to its users. The users are solely liable to check for any updates, alterations, modifications or elimination of any data on the website regarding any event. By using the site, you agree to these terms of use; if you do not agree, kindly do not use this site. We may change these conditions from time to time without prior notice to you. It is your responsibility to regularly check, if any changes have been made to these terms and conditions.

OWNERSHIP
The Site is the property of Silk Matters™. All content on this website and related social media handles is owned by Silk Matters™ (“Silk Matters Content”) and is protected by copyright, service mark or any other proprietary rights notice that accompanies Silk Matters™ content. Silk Matters™ name, logo and trademarks must not be copied or used, in whole or in part, without our prior written permission. In addition, custom graphics, all page headers, button icons and scripts are service marks, trademarks and/or trade dress of Silk Matters™, and must not be copied or used, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from Silk Matters™.​Silk Matters™ reserves the right to change, transfer ownership, release or disband this Site at any time without warning or liability.

PRIVACY POLICY

Silk Matters™ is committed to protecting your privacy. All information collected on our site is only used to process and administer your competition submission (In accordance to the competitions terms & conditions). Data collected upon registration would comprise of the Name of Participant, E-mail address, Occupation, University, Residence Address & Country, and by registering with Silk Matters™ you agree to all terms and conditions.

 

Competition Terms

ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION

Architecture and Design Awards and Competitions on www.silkmatters.com are organized and administered by Silk Matters organization ™. Silk Matters™ functions as a platform for Architecture and design competitions. These competitions, unless otherwise stated are open idea competitions and in no way intend to be realized. Stated concepts have no intention to degrade current conditions or areas. Competitions held by Silk Matters™  function from an ideas standpoint and do not directly relate to any organization, neighborhood, city or individual stated on the website, brief, or any other data associated with Silk Matters™  The physical site’s and property that Silk Matters™  includes as part of each competition are not the property of Silk Matters™ . Unless otherwise stated Silk Matters™ has no relation, agreement, or future plans to reach an agreement with the owners of any property included within the competitions. Competitions are not meant to undermine or in any way influence the idealistically used property or the organization, individual, or related party that owns said property. Silk Matters™ does not intend to replace, better, or have any realistic influence on organization, companies, or any party that is related to the materialization of our competitions. Silk Matters™ is not responsible for any in-person site analysis and research. Silk Matters™ does not own the sites on which the competitions are held and therefore participants must abide to any local private property details.

Silk Matters™ reserves its right to assign any judges, jury agents or other authorized administrator to administer it’s competitions, including making any decision or exercising such at its discretion. Silk Matters™ reserves the right to cancel or suspend or alter the rules at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, and if circumstances arise outside of its control.

GOVERNANCE

These rules of Silk Matters™ Competitions are governed by the laws of India. By participating in this Competition, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of the third party resource links or specific products.

LICENSE

By submitting an entry to the Competition, you the “Entrant” provide Silk Matters™ with a limited, nonexclusive, sub-licensable, worldwide, royalty free license (but not the obligation), which license is effective in perpetuity, for the duration of the competition / Project and until the end of the judging of the competition, to use, copy, modify, translate and/or adapt, distribute, publicly display by any means and in any media and create derivative works of, and copy, distribute and publicly display such derivative works of your entry solely in connection with the inclusion of your entry in activities related to, and the promotion of, the competition and the particular project, without any further notice or remuneration to you. The rights shall be applied to all existing or future media. By submitting your entry to the Competition you also give Silk Matters™ a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty free, irrevocable license in perpetuity to display and archive your entry on the Silk Matters™ website, www.silkmatters.com  (“Website”), on Silk Matters™’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social networking / media pages in relation to the Competition or project. Any credits will be with the name you supply to the Competition. Silk Matters™ shall make commercially reasonable efforts to display appropriate and customary credit lines on any Submission displayed or otherwise featured in such media, however shall have no affirmative duty to do so.

 

LIABILITY

Entrant agrees to release, indemnify, defend any party from any liability, any claim for damages, and/or law suit for or by reason of the mentioned submission as a result of any submission, revision, alteration or similar thereof.

The entrants also acknowledges and agrees and therefore covenants not to sue or make any claim against any party related to an entrant’s submission or any individual participation or involvement in the Competition in any way whatsoever, or any use thereof, and therefore:

  1. Under no circumstances shall or can the Entrant be entitled to any award for any loss or any damages, which include attorneys’ fees.

  2. Any dispute, claim and legal action arising from or connected with this Competition, or any prizes awarded or potentially awarded therein, shall be resolved without resort to any form of legal action or class action.

  3. Should an entrant choose to bring a claim against Silk Matters™ or its agents, the entrant shall pay the Silk Matters™ or any party’s reasonable attorneys’ fees and its legal costs arising from the claim should it fail.

  4. Nothing herein will constitute a waiver of the entrants or participant legal rights or any rights any party may have to take against the entrant or participant.

Silk Matters™ shall not be liable for any law suit or claim against any of its judges or selector panel emanating from their professional conduct or otherwise. Unless clearly stated, all Competitions are design concept only and do not imply in a way, an intention for the proposals to be constructed or built unless.

 

INDEMNITY

You agree to indemnify Silk Matters™ fully from and against all claims, liability, damages, losses, costs and expenses, legal fees arising out of any breach of these conditions by you or any other liability arising out of your use of this site.

ELIGIBILITY

By entering Silk Matters™ competitions, any and all entrants, participants, and submissions agree in full to these Terms and Conditions and as referred in this document. Please read these terms and conditions carefully prior to entry to ensure that you understand and agree. You must agree to these terms and conditions prior to submitting an entry to the Competition, in order to be eligible to receive the prizes described in these Rules. These Rules form a binding legal agreement between you and Organizer with respect to the Competition. You must have a valid email address in order to enter the Competition.

  • Silk Matters™ awards and competitions are open to anyone aged 18 and over, residing anywhere in the world.

  • Employees of Silk Matters™, member of the judging panel and their employees, associates, or partners are prohibited from entering the competition.

 

INELIGIBILITY

Any participant - either participating individually or in a team - can be excluded from the
competition. Participants can be disqualified when:

  • Participant discloses their identity in their submitted work.

  • Language of text is not in English.

  • Submitted materials are not consistent with the given submission requirements 

  • Submitted material does not follow given format

  • Submission received after the given deadline. 

  • False information provided in the registration form.

  • Participants have work or blood relationships with any of the jury members or staffs of Silk Matters™

  • Submitted material is found to have been copied and not an original work of the participant.  

CATEGORIES

It is the responsibility of the participant to carefully analyze and select a category relevant to their design proposal. Participants may enter their work in as many categories as they see fit. However, the jury and staff will not switch their entry into a different category on their behalf.

GENERAL RULES

  • Minimum eligible age for participants is 18 years.

  • It is the responsibility of the participant to adhere to competition/award calendar, registration fees, deadlines and rules.

  • Participants may join individually or as a team.

  • Participants may be students, graduates, freelancers, professionals in architecture and its affiliated fields as well as any design related fields. It is not necessary to be in the field of architecture unless otherwise mentioned in the brief as an eligibility criteria.

  • Registration fee accounts for a single entry. Participants may take part in more than one category by paying the respective registration fees. 

  • The authorship of each project is equally attributed to each member of the Team.

  • Juror decisions are final.

  • Participants are not allowed to contact any jury member by any means during the entire duration of the competition. 

  • Participants are not allowed to disclose competition materials before winners are officially announced.

  • The Organizer is not responsible for web malfunctioning, technical difficulties or failure to receive or upload materials; it is highly recommended to complete the registration, payment and upload procedures in advance in regards to the given deadlines; participants are invited to notify the Organizer via e-email in case of technical problems.

  • The Organizer has the right to change dates or other details in order to improve or fix aspects of the competition. In this case, the contestants will be noticed within a reasonable time frame through all the Organizer’s media channels.

 

REGISTRATION FEE AND ASSOCIATED COST

There is a registration fee for Awards and Competitions on the website and all costs and disbursements incurred by entrants in preparing a submission or entry are the sole responsibility of the entrant. This fee goes into the administrative cost of organizing an award program, winner's cash prize, juror fee and advertising. All registration or submission fees are nonrefundable and nontransferable once an entry is made.

 

PAYMENT

There is a registration fee for all competitions conducted by Silk Matters™. All costs incurred by entrants in preparing a submission are the sole responsibility of the entrant. Entry fees once paid is non-refundable and  non-transferable under all circumstances.

All payment made for participation in the competition are accepted through a secured payment gateway.

Payment portal for Indian Nationals is via PayU and/or Razorpay and for foreign nationals is via PayPal only.

We accept the following modes of payment through debit or credit card for participation purposes:

  1. VISA

  2. MASTERCARD

  3. MAESTRO

Note: Please ensure to provide cardholder’s name as shown on the card and cardholder’s address as shown on the card statement

 

SUBMISSION

  • Entrants may either make a submission individually or as a team.

  • Competition entrants are prohibited from sale, assignment or transfer of any of their submission rights a third party.

  • Student entrants would be required to proof their status for any student only competitions and the same would be true for professional only competitions should the submission be selected as one of the winning entrants.

  • All Submission must strictly conform to any Terms and Conditions and the Rules and Guidelines set by our Silk Matters™ Competition Brief.

  • Once the final submissions are sent, no additional edits, or change can be made. Upon sent of the final submission each participant will receive a confirmation email notification within five business days.

  • By entering the competition, the entrant acknowledges and accepts that all aspects of any submission narrative, description, details, images, illustration and animation may be used for publicity purposes by Silk Matters™.

 

OWNERSHIP AND COPYRIGHT

The ownership of copyright in the work of all submissions will be in accordance with the Copyright and Patent Act 1988, which implies the copy right rests with the author. No Entrants or participants shall receive or be entitled to receive any payment in any form for submissions or for granting Silk Matters™ any right herein, other than for being selected as one of the winning the competition entries. Subject to any limitation herein, any design, drawings accompanying any entry or submission remains the property of the entrant and may be used for its or their own purpose. Silk Matters™ shall treat an entry or submission as being eligible to enter the Competition under Indian Copyright law. By entering the Silk Matters™ competition participants agree on the sharing their entry for making the publication based on the competition results. Entrants are solely responsible for protecting the intellectual property of any submission to Silk Matters™ competitions. By taking part in this Competition and accepting the Rules, the Participants awarded with a prize money or with a mention (projects receiving a honorable/finalist mention) undertake, from now on, to provide, if needed, any further digital materials (i.e. 3D models) regarding the project to help the Organizer and the Partner better report the results of the competition. The Materials must be new and original and the outcome of the intellectual activity of Participants: works and/or materials that do not comply with these features must
not be submitted. Therefore, Participants agree to indemnify and hold the Organizer harmless from any cost or damage connected with the infringement of any third-party intellectual property right. By taking part in this Competition and accepting
the Rules, Participants declare to be authors (and/or co-author in the event the Team is made of more members) of the uploaded Materials.

 

COMPETITION DISQUALIFICATION

  • By submitting a competition proposal, the participant agrees the content to be original and is not copied from any other sources. In such case, if it comes to the notice of Silk Matters™, the participant would be disqualified without any notice and the registration fee will not be refunded.

  • Submissions which do not meet or comply with the submission guidelines or found to contain identifying sign or mark that may, in any way, contribute to identifying entrant shall be disqualified and Silk Matters™ shall be under no obligation to notify the Entrant or Participant of the disqualified entry or submission.

  • All Submissions after the closing date for a particular competition as mentioned on the respective competition brief will be automatically disqualified.

  • Participants are not allowed to make any kind of contact with jury panel, if found, will be disqualified without any notice.

  • Competition participants will receive their individual or team participant code after completing registration. This number is used for identification purposes throughout the jury voting process Submissions without given Participant Code as stated or incorrectly stated will not be considered valid

  • Submissions made in any format other than that mentioned in the competition brief will be disqualified without any notice.

SELECTION PROCESS

After all submissions have been finalized, the jury will begin the process of short listing the entries. All entries are judged based on the criteria determined and mentioned for each category. Jury members are selected based on their high qualifications and expertise in the field. Jury members' decisions are final and may not be argued by participants.

 

WINNER SELECTION/JURY’S DECISION

Competition entries will never be judged with participant information as an influence, submissions are judged solely on submitted work.  Silk Matters™’s determination of any winning entry or submission through its panel of judges is final. Jury decisions may not be argued by participants and are final. In the event that a selected winning entry cannot accept, receive or ineligible for the prize for any reason, the prize shall be awarded to the next highest rated entry from the top shortlisted or remaining entries that meet the winning requirement. Silk Matters™’s is association with the competition judges do not imply any legal association, affiliation, contract or partnership in any way shape or form.

 

AWARDS AND PRIZES

Competition awards of any manner are subject to change throughout the competition. Additional awards may be added, awards may be subtracted or altered at any time. It is the participant's responsibility to regularly check the website and be aware of any changes.

  • The winning entry will receive a Winner’s Certificate of Achievement and if mentioned, a Cash Prize. Provision of a cash prize may vary from competition to competition.

  • The winning entry will be featured on multiple social media platforms.

  • The winning entry will be featured on Silk Matters™ Annual design magazine

  • Documentary evidence of the architect’s or team leader’s right to practice the profession, Student ID proof in case of student competition, their respective country or country of residence may be required before any awards payment is made to a recipient.

  • Photographic identity document such as passport, driver’s license, university ID card, will need to be provided to Silk Matters™ before any award payment will be made.

  • In the case of a Professional entry, studio or company, then the formal company registration documents will need to be supplied together with photographic identification of director or team leader.

  • All Bank account details into which any prize money is to be paid must match that of the registered individual or team leader or studio or company.

  • If the winner chooses not to accept the prize, an alternate winner will be chosen.

  • All federal, state, and local taxes on the value of the prize are the sole responsibility of the winner.

  • Failure to return of any prize notification requested detail within the deadline date may result in forfeit of the prize.

  • Any winner or potential who cannot be contacted within fifteen (15) days of attempted first notification may result in disqualification and forfeiture of the prize.

 

CASH PRIZE

  • The amount of cash to be rewarded as ‘Cash Prize’ will be decided by the Silk Matters™ team.

  • Cash prize will be sent to the respective winners ONLY via PayU or Razorpay for Indian participants and via PayPal for International participants. 

  • Only the first place Winners (unless otherwise mentioned) are eligible for cash prize.

 

PUBLICATION AND PROMOTIONS

By submitting your work to Silk Matters™, including but not limited to for submission in a competition or for publication, you give permission for your work to be published in any matter and over any platform or location. Silk Matters™ reserves the right to publish such material in whole or in part, or use them in any way it sees fit in connection with this website or its competition without permission of the entrant or payment for such use, subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. You grant Silk Matters™ the permission to share submitted work with third parties, which may include but is not limited to: potential employers, other blogs, websites and social media platforms. Silk Matters™ reserves the right to alter the content, associated dates, awards and publication of any promotion or competition at any time. Further, Silk Matters™ ™ reserves the right to cancel, discontinue or terminate any competition or promotion without notice. 

 

COMPETITION INTEGRITY

Silk Matters™ undertakes to scrupulously protect the integrity of its competitions by:

  1. A Unique Participant Code Number by which each submission received will be administered organized, processed and evaluated. This means that the digital board received will be stored under their registration numbers, with the complementary information kept in a separate file.

  2. Enforcing the rules that besides the registration number, all illustrations or images accompanying any submission shall be devoid of any marks, logos, symbols or sign that may identify its authority or source.

  3. Any infringement of these rules will lead to immediate disqualification.

  4. The jury or judging panel will be made of the entrants’ identities only after the evaluation stage and winners are selected

  5. By submitting work in any way to Silk Matters™ the individual or team accepts full responsibility for the text, images, video footage and any other form of media that is provided.

 

AMENDMENTS

Silk Matters™ reserves the right to amend these Terms and Conditions at any time without notice.

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