Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of These Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of InnoBee, the peer-to-peer innovation management platform operated by InnoBee ("InnoBee," "we," "us," or "our"), including our website, applications, and all related services (collectively, the "Platform").

By creating an account, accessing, or using the Platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you are using the Platform on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization, and "you" refers to both you and the organization.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not access or use the Platform.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old to create an InnoBee account. If you are between 16 and the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you may only use the Platform with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian, or as otherwise permitted by local law.

You may not use the Platform if you are barred from doing so under the laws of your jurisdiction, or if you are located in, or a resident of, a country or region subject to comprehensive trade sanctions administered by the relevant authorities in your jurisdiction.

3. Your Account

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us immediately at security@innobee.buzz if you suspect unauthorized access.

You must provide accurate information when creating your account and keep it up to date. We may suspend or terminate accounts that provide false or misleading information, or that are created to evade a prior suspension.

One person or organization may not maintain multiple accounts to manipulate challenge outcomes, judging, sponsorship totals, Hive Score, or the InnoBee Coins economy ("sockpuppeting"). We treat this as a serious violation — see Section 10.

4. What InnoBee Is

InnoBee is a marketplace and toolset for creating, discovering, participating in, judging, and sponsoring innovation challenges across 40+ challenge types (hackathons, pitch competitions, ISO audits, crowdfunding rounds, and more), plus supporting features including InnoBee Queen (an AI assistant), the Innovation Wallet and BeeShop, Hive Score reputation, and — as they become available — additional modules such as ISO 56001 Audit and Pitch Deck creation.

Roles on InnoBee (creator, participant, judge, sponsor, mentor) are assigned per challenge, not fixed per account. The same person may hold different roles on different challenges, subject to the eligibility and conflict-of-interest rules in Section 8 and our Challenge & Judging Guidelines.

We may add, change, or discontinue features, challenge types, or modules at any time. We will provide reasonable notice before discontinuing a feature you are actively using in a way that materially affects you (for example, an in-progress challenge or an active paid subscription).

5. Subscription Plans, À La Carte Features, and Fees

InnoBee offers free and paid subscription tiers (currently Free, Yellow Jacket, Queen, and Diamond), described at innobee.buzz/pricing, as well as individually purchasable features and add-ons ("à la carte features") through the BeeShop or at point of use — for example, feature unlocks, challenge boosts, AI credits, and premium modules.

Paid subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period unless cancelled before renewal. À la carte purchases are generally one-time charges unless clearly described as recurring at the time of purchase.

Fees are charged in advance and are non-refundable except as described in our Refund Policy or as required by applicable law.

We may change our fees or introduce new fees for new features. We will give you at least 30 days' notice before a fee increase takes effect on your existing subscription.

6. Innovation Wallet, InnoBee Coins, and Prize Funds

The Innovation Wallet holds InnoBee Coins (an in-platform virtual currency earned through participation, judging, and other activity, and spent in the BeeShop) and, separately, real prize funds contributed by challenge creators and sponsors.

InnoBee Coins have no cash value, cannot be withdrawn, transferred to another user, or redeemed for cash, and may expire or be forfeited if your account is closed or terminated for a violation of these Terms.

Prize funds for a challenge are held in escrow by InnoBee (or a payment processing partner) until the challenge concludes and are released to declared winners in accordance with the challenge's stated rules. A platform fee (currently 10% on prize payouts on paid tiers, as described at innobee.buzz/pricing) applies unless stated otherwise for your plan.

If a challenge is cancelled before completion, escrowed prize funds are returned to the contributing creator/sponsors, less any portion already legitimately disbursed and less standard payment-processing fees that are not refundable to us.

We are not a bank, and the Innovation Wallet is not a deposit account or insured financial product. Funds held in escrow are safeguarded through our payment processing partner (currently Stripe) in accordance with their applicable terms.

7. Creating and Participating in Challenges

Challenge creators are responsible for setting clear, lawful, and fair challenge rules, eligibility criteria, judging criteria, and prize terms, and for honoring them once the challenge is published. InnoBee may remove or suspend a challenge that violates these Terms, our Community Guidelines, or our Challenge & Judging Guidelines.

By submitting an entry to a challenge, you represent that your submission is your own original work (or that you have all rights necessary to submit it), does not infringe any third party's intellectual property or other rights, and complies with the specific challenge's rules and our Intellectual Integrity Policy.

Ownership of your submission remains with you or your organization, subject to the license you grant us and the challenge creator under our IP Policy and the specific challenge's stated terms (for example, some challenges may require a broader license to the creator as a condition of eligibility — this will always be disclosed in the challenge rules before you submit).

InnoBee does not guarantee that any challenge will result in a prize award, investment, commercial deal, or any other outcome beyond what is explicitly promised in that challenge's published rules.

8. Judging, Sponsorship, and Conflicts of Interest

Judges agree to evaluate submissions honestly, in accordance with the challenge's published criteria, and to disclose any conflict of interest (for example, a personal or financial relationship with a participant) before judging begins. You may not judge a challenge you have submitted an entry to.

Sponsors and investors using the Platform to back a challenge or engage with a Pitch Deck (once available) do so on the terms disclosed at the time of contribution. Any monetary contribution processed through InnoBee that is described as a "sponsorship" or similar is a contribution, not a purchase of equity or a security, unless a specific transaction is explicitly and separately documented as such outside the standard Platform flow.

We may use automated systems, including InnoBee Queen, to assist judges with consistency checks and flag statistical outliers in scoring. Final judging decisions remain the responsibility of human judges; InnoBee Queen does not autonomously decide challenge outcomes.

9. InnoBee Queen (AI Features)

InnoBee Queen is an AI assistant that can help you draft challenge briefs, improve submissions, prepare for ISO 56001 audits, and (in Agent Mode, where enabled) take certain actions on your behalf within the Platform at your direction.

AI-generated suggestions may be inaccurate, incomplete, or unsuitable for your specific situation. You are responsible for reviewing and verifying any content, advice, or action InnoBee Queen produces or takes before relying on it, submitting it, or allowing it to affect a real transaction.

Do not submit InnoBee Queen output to a challenge, exam, or certification process as your own original work where the specific challenge's rules or our Intellectual Integrity Policy require disclosure of AI assistance — see that policy for what disclosure is required and when.

We may use anonymized and aggregated interactions with InnoBee Queen to improve the Platform. See our Privacy Policy for how we handle data submitted to AI features.

10. Prohibited Conduct

In addition to the rules in our Community Guidelines, you agree not to:

• Create multiple accounts to manipulate challenges, judging, Hive Score, sponsorship, or the Coins economy
• Submit plagiarized, fraudulent, or intentionally misleading challenge content, submissions, or credentials
• Harass, threaten, defame, or discriminate against any user (see our Anti-Discrimination Policy)
• Attempt to circumvent escrow, payment, or fee mechanisms, including off-platform side payments intended to avoid platform fees on a matched sponsorship or deal
• Reverse-engineer, scrape at scale, or interfere with the Platform's operation, security, or rate limits
• Use the Platform to facilitate an unlawful securities offering, unlicensed investment solicitation, or any transaction prohibited under Section 8
• Upload malware or attempt to gain unauthorized access to any account, system, or data

11. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Platform, remove content, or withhold pending payouts if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, our Community Guidelines, our Challenge & Judging Guidelines, or applicable law, or if required to do so by law or a payment processing partner.

Where practical, we will notify you of the reason for enforcement action and provide an opportunity to respond, except where we believe advance notice would allow evidence destruction, further harm, or violate a legal obligation.

You may close your account at any time from your account settings. Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 6, 7, 13, 14, and 15) will survive.

12. Disclaimers

The Platform is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent permitted by law, InnoBee disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

InnoBee does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any challenge, submission, judging outcome, sponsorship introduction, AI-generated content, or investment-related interaction on the Platform. Any decision to invest in, sponsor, hire from, or otherwise act on Platform content is made at your own risk.

InnoBee is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, or funding portal, and nothing on the Platform constitutes investment, legal, tax, or professional advice.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, InnoBee and its officers, employees, and service providers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising from your use of the Platform.

Our total liability for any claim arising from these Terms or the Platform will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose, or (b) USD 100.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

14. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the owner's jurisdiction, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

Before filing a claim, you agree to contact us at legal@innobee.buzz so we can attempt to resolve the dispute informally. If we cannot resolve it within 60 days, either party may pursue the dispute through the courts or arbitration forum specified once finalized above.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes, we will provide at least 14 days' notice via email or an in-Platform notice before the changes take effect. Continued use of the Platform after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

16. Platform Ownership

The InnoBee platform available at innobee.buzz and innobee.ir, together with its brand, design, source code, and all associated intellectual property, is owned by its founder, Mohammad Reza Razghandi (linkedin.com/in/mohammad-razghandi). This section is separate from — and does not limit — the license you grant us in Your Content under Section 7 and our IP Policy, or the rights described elsewhere in these Terms.

17. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to legal@innobee.buzz.