Mandate conditions
Mandate Conditions for Consultations in the Area of Inventions, Patents, and Exploitation by Campus Technologies Freiburg – Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Forschung der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität und des Universitätsklinikums Freiburg mbH
Status: January 16, 2026
§ 1 Scope of Application
These mandate conditions apply to all contracts between the patent exploitation agency Campus Technologies Freiburg GmbH as contractor (hereinafter “CTF”) and its clients (hereinafter “Principals”) regarding advice, information, representation, or other orders in the field of inventions, patents, trademarks, and copyright, unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing or mandatorily prescribed by law.
§ 2 Scope and Execution of the Mandate
a. CTF offers the following services:
- Invention consulting
- Evaluation of inventions
- Support of the patenting process for inventions, communication with patent attorney firms
- Patent exploitation and licensing
- Marketing of materials, data, and software
- Advice on exploitation strategies
- Identification of potential buyers of the invention
b. Liability for success: CTF owes effort, not a specific economic or legal success.
c. Processing: The agency is entitled, as needed, to engage knowledgeable third parties from home or abroad for processing the mandate.
d. The scope of services explicitly does not include legal advice or representation within the meaning of the Legal Services Act. For legal questions, patent attorneys and/or lawyers must be consulted by the Principal.
§ 3 Obligations of the Principal
a. Duty of cooperation: The Principal is obligated to support CTF in executing the mandate and to provide all necessary information and documents in a timely manner.
b. Contact details: The Principal shall inform the agency of changes to its contact details during the mandate.
§ 4 Performance Period
Deadlines and dates for CTF’s contractual performance are binding only if expressly confirmed as such by CTF. Deadlines and dates are deemed met if CTF has substantially provided its contractual performance within the agreed deadlines. It is irrelevant if the services still need minor supplementation by CTF. Delays in delivery and performance due to force majeure (e.g., war, pandemic, etc.) or events that do not only temporarily substantially hinder or make impossible delivery and performance for CTF shall not be attributable to CTF, even for bindingly agreed deadlines. They entitle CTF to postpone delivery or performance by the duration of the hindrance plus a reasonable start-up period or to withdraw wholly or partially from the contract for the unfulfilled part. If the hindrance lasts longer than 3 months, the Principal is entitled to withdraw from the unfulfilled part after setting a reasonable grace period. If the delivery time is extended or CTF is released from its performance obligation due to circumstances not attributable to it, the Principal cannot derive any claims for damages therefrom. CTF may only invoke these circumstances if it has immediately informed the Principal of the delay.
§ 5 Remuneration
a. Fee: The agency’s remuneration is based on the agreement made. The Principal receives a cost estimate in writing or orally in advance based on the expected time expenditure.
b. The remuneration to be paid by the Principal for preparing an expert opinion or evaluation analysis is to be paid independently of further remuneration claims; no crediting against other remuneration claims that CTF may have in the event of subsequent exploitation. The Principal shall fully bear the necessary external service costs incurred in connection with the contractual performance (e.g., costs for access to external databases, for lawyers and patent attorneys, etc.). No crediting against the remuneration claim takes place.
c. CTF reserves the right, in the event of payment delay, to withhold performance, claim statutory default interest, and demand compensation for further damage resulting from the delay.
§ 6 Liability
a. CTF’s liability is fully excluded insofar as the damage results from defective cooperation or defective transmission of data, materials, or information by the Principal or by third parties engaged by the Principal or contractor.
b. CTF is not liable in case of simple negligence, nor for unforeseeable, non-typical contractual damages. CTF is liable only for damages due to intent or gross negligence. Any liability of CTF for intent and gross negligence is limited to a maximum of twice the fee value (gross fee of the mandate), and liability for indirect damages and personal injury is excluded.
§ 7 Confidentiality and Data Protection
a. Confidential information within the meaning of these mandate conditions includes all embodied or oral information and data, such as technical or business data, documents or knowledge, as well as samples, received by one party in connection with this order – including an offer prepared by CTF and sent to the Principal before order acceptance – and expressly and recognizably marked as confidential. The parties undertake to use all confidential information exclusively for fulfilling this order, not to make them accessible to third parties or only to those employees who need them for this order and who are bound to confidentiality corresponding to this agreement (or already subject to a general confidentiality obligation under their employment contract), to keep them secret, applying the same care as for own information of similar importance, at least however a reasonable degree of care. The confidentiality obligation does not apply to confidential information that is or becomes publicly accessible without attributable fault of one party. This obligation also does not apply to confidential information that must be disclosed due to a binding official or judicial order or compelling legal provisions, provided the contractual partners are informed in writing in advance of the respective disclosure and the parties have previously exhausted all legal possibilities to prevent disclosure.
b. The parties may demand within three months after termination of the order that confidential information in embodied and/or electronic form be returned or destroyed immediately. This applies only to such information not included in the performance package delivered by CTF to the Principal. All information processed for creating the performance package will be retained by CTF for the statutory minimum retention period. The parties undertake to confirm the destruction of confidential information in writing within 14 days of receipt of the request.
c. CTF undertakes to comply with applicable statutory data protection provisions.
§ 8 Copyright and Usage Rights
a. Copyright: CTF reserves all rights to documents created by it.
b. Usage right: The Principal receives a simple usage right to the documents created within the framework of the mandate.
§ 9 Termination of the Mandate
The mandate ends upon completion of the order. The mandate can be terminated in writing by either party at any time, unless compelling statutory provisions prevent this. In the event of premature termination, the Principal shall pay CTF for the services provided up to that point plus any external service costs incurred. CTF is entitled to bill its activities on an hourly basis.
§ 10 Final Provisions
a. Applicable law: German law applies exclusively to the mandate relationship.
b. Place of jurisdiction: Exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the mandate relationship is Freiburg i.Br.
c. Severability clause: Should individual provisions of these mandate conditions be invalid, this does not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.