LICENSE

SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT

Academic Research License

Between

The University of Rouen (L’Etablissement Université de Rouen).

Hereinafter referred to as"the Owner"

Of the one part,

AND

THE USER

Of the other part

Collectively referred to as "the Parties" or individually as "the Party."

IT HAS BEEN AGREED AS FOLLOWS:

Preamble

The present research license is a non-exclusive, free, copyleft license (authorization for modification/distribution provided that future developments are subject to the same license) for software, specifically designed to ensure cooperation with the university community; it extends to software installed on servers. This License is intended solely for an academic user for exclusively Academic Research Use. This license is inspired by the INRIA academic license (license no. 5911).

The present license is specifically designed to ensure that, in all cases, including when the software is used on a server, the modified source code is accessible to the community. It requires the operator of a server to provide the source code of the modified version running on that server to the users of that server. Consequently, the public use of a modified version on a publicly accessible server provides access to the source code of the modified version.

This research license excludes any form of exploitation of the Program other than Academic Use. Other rights may be acquired by the licensee by contacting the department mentioned in Article 11 of the License.

1. Definitions

"License" refers to the present agreement.

"Copyright" also refers to copyright-like laws that apply to other types of works.

"The Program" refers to any work protected by copyright licensed under the present License.

"Academic Use" refers to research use performed by a public research laboratory. The object of the research may only concern the software covered by the License. Academic Use expressly excludes any lucrative or commercial activity, including, but not limited to, sale, licensing, manufacturing, or development of commercial products, use in the context of research funded by entities other than universities or research organizations, the provision of services and/or consulting, use in the context of research where an entity other than a university or research organization obtains rights to the research results or any other advantage, and use and/or exploitation for or on behalf of a public or private entity.

2. Disclaimer

The License offers the USER only a limited warranty and imposes only restricted liability on the Owner.

In this regard, the USER's attention is drawn to the risks associated with loading and using the Program given its specificity, which may make it complex to handle and which therefore reserves it for experienced professionals with in-depth technical knowledge. The USER is therefore invited to load the Program and test its suitability for their needs under conditions that ensure the security of their systems and/or data and, more generally, to use and exploit them under the same security conditions.

3. Purpose

The purpose of the License is to define the terms and conditions under which the Owner grants, free of charge, to the USER a right to use the Program for Academic Use.

4. Ownership

The USER shall respect the Owner's existing intellectual, industrial, and commercial property rights over the Program.

5. Terms of Use

The Owner grants the USER a strictly personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and non-assignable right to use the Program solely for Academic Use purposes. This right of use is granted only for computers and servers within the USER's IT infrastructure and only for the duration of the License. The License does not involve the transfer of any property rights to the USER.

The right of use conferred by the License consists exhaustively of the application of the Program by the USER and for their exclusive account.

The USER may under no circumstances transfer all or part of the License to their affiliated companies of any kind, and notably, but not exclusively, to branches, subsidiaries, or parent companies. If the USER's affiliates wish to benefit from a license for the Program, authorization to use it may only be granted through a separate agreement.

The USER undertakes not to market, lease, distribute, or transfer all or part of the Program.

The USER undertakes not to provide any services, direct or indirect, involving the use of the Program.

The USER undertakes not to disassemble, decompile, or analyze by any reverse engineering process whatsoever all or part of the Program, subject to the application of Article L 122-6-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code, for any use other than Academic Use.

The USER undertakes not to modify all or part of the Program. Likewise, they undertake not to integrate all or part of the Program into one or more composite or derivative software programs for any use other than Academic Use.

The USER undertakes, unless prior written agreement is obtained from the Owner, not to file any patent relating to the Program, nor any patent that would have the effect of restricting or conditioning the use of the Program by others.

The USER undertakes not to use the Program in a manner inconsistent with the License.

Any use, direct or indirect, of the Program by the USER other than that provided for by the License, and notably its use for the provision of services, its use for manufacturing needs, or any act of commercialization of their right of use, shall be preceded by a separate agreement between the Parties.

6. Duration – Entry into Force

Acceptance by the USER of the terms of the License is deemed acquired by the first of the following events:

 - The loading of the Program by any means, notably by downloading from a server or by loading from physical media;
 - The first exercise by the USER of any of the rights granted by the License.

A copy of the License, notably containing a warning regarding the specificities of the Program, the warranty restriction, and the limitation to use by experienced users, was made available to the USER prior to their acceptance, and the USER acknowledges having read it.

The License enters into force on the date of its acceptance by the USER. The License shall remain in effect for the entire legal duration of protection of the economic rights relating to the Program.

7. Publications

In the case of new developments, the USER undertakes, in the event of private communication, to proceed with a public publication within one (1) month from the date of the first private communication.

The USER undertakes, within the framework of their communications/publications, to respect a citation obligation. For publications, the following format must be respected:
"Constum, T., Tranouez, P. & Paquet, T., DANIEL: a fast document attention network for information extraction and labelling of handwritten documents. IJDAR (2025). [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10032-024-00511-9](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10032-024-00511-9)"

8. Liability and Warranty

8.1 – Liability

The Owner shall in no case be liable for any direct or indirect damage, such as commercial or financial prejudice, loss of clientele, loss of brand image, loss of profit, loss of order, any commercial disturbance, loss or destruction (total or partial) of data, or action brought against the USER by a third party, which may be related to or result from the use or inability to use the Program.

 8.2 – Warranty

The Program is a research prototype delivered "as is" to the USER. The USER acknowledges that the technical characteristics and functionalities of the Program correspond to their needs. Apart from making the Program available, the License does not involve any obligation for the Owner to provide the USER with assistance, maintenance, or adaptation of the Program to the computers in the USER's infrastructure.

However, the Owner remains free to offer such services, the terms and conditions of which will then be determined in a separate agreement.

The USER acknowledges that the current state of scientific and technical knowledge at the time the Program is released does not allow for testing and verifying all uses nor for detecting the existence of potential defects. The USER's attention has been drawn on this point to the risks associated with loading and using the Program, which are reserved for experienced users.

In particular, the Owner does not guarantee that the Program is error-free, that it will function without interruption, that it will be compatible with the USER's equipment and software configuration, or that it will meet the USER's needs.

The Owner does not guarantee, expressly or tacitly, that the Program does not infringe any third-party intellectual property right relating to a patent, software, or any other property right. Thus, the Owner excludes any warranty for the benefit of the USER against infringement actions that may be brought regarding the use of the Program.

11. Correspondence

Any correspondence relating to the License or the possibility of exploitation outside of Academic Use may be sent in writing either to the email address pi-nv@normandie-univ.fr or to the address of:

Normandie Valorisation
Esplanade de la Paix
CS 14032 – 14032 CAEN Cedex 5
FRANCE

12. Assignment

The Parties declare that the License is concluded intuitu personae. Consequently, neither Party is authorized to assign or transfer, in whole or in part, whether for a fee or free of charge, the rights and obligations pertaining to the License, without the prior written agreement of the other Party.

13. Termination and Expiration of the Agreement

The Owner may, if the USER fails to perform their obligations, terminate the License. In this case, the Owner shall inform the USER of its intention to terminate the License by sending a registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt in which the nature of the breach will be indicated.

Termination shall take effect either immediately when the breach cannot be remedied, or, otherwise, within a period of thirty (30) days from the receipt of this letter if the USER has not remedied their breach to the Owner's satisfaction during this period.

The expiration of the License occurs either at its normal term or after its termination by one of the Parties.

This expiration, regardless of the cause, shall not affect the clauses relating to confidentiality, publications, and intellectual property.

Upon expiration of the License for any cause whatsoever, the USER undertakes to cease using the Program. They undertake to destroy the license files and all original media and copies of the Program, even partial, in their possession, including any backup copies, within a maximum period of one (1) month.

The USER shall establish, sign, and transmit to the correspondent mentioned in Article 11, a certificate attesting to the destruction of the Program and any copies in their possession.

14. Force Majeure

Neither Party shall be liable for the total or partial non-performance of its obligations caused by an event constituting force majeure within the meaning of Article 1218 of the French Civil Code and recognized as such by the jurisprudence of French courts and tribunals.

The Party invoking an event constituting force majeure must notify the other Party within thirty (30) days following the occurrence of this event. Furthermore, it undertakes to deploy its best efforts to limit the consequences of this event.

The performance deadlines shall be extended for a period determined by mutual agreement between the Parties.

In the event that a force majeure event persists for more than thirty (30) days from the date on which the force majeure event was notified to the other Party, the Parties shall meet to determine the conditions under which the License will be maintained or terminated.

15. Severability (Nullity)

If one or more provisions of the License are held to be invalid or declared as such pursuant to a law, a regulation, or following a final decision rendered by a competent jurisdiction, the other provisions of the License shall retain their full force and scope.

16. Headings

In the event of difficulty of interpretation between any of the headings at the top of the articles or clauses of the License and any of these articles or clauses, the headings shall be declared non-existent.

17. Waiver

The fact that one of the Parties has not required the application of any clause of the License or has not taken advantage of a breach by the other Party, whether permanently or temporarily, shall in no case be considered a waiver of that Party's rights arising from the clause in question.

18. Relationship between the Parties

The Parties are independent contracting parties. The Parties declare that the License can in no case be interpreted or considered as constituting a partnership, a group endowed with legal personality, nor a joint venture or a de facto company. Affectio societatis, the pursuit of sharing profits, and the contribution to losses are formally excluded.

19. Entire Agreement

The License, supplemented by the license files, expresses the entirety of the obligations of the Parties.

It cancels and replaces in their entirety all proposals, promises, commitments, discussions, and writings previously exchanged between the Parties on this same subject.

It supplements all agreements, contracts, and conventions previously signed between the Parties, it being understood that in case of contradiction, the provisions of the License shall prevail.

20. Partial Impossibility of Performance

If one or more clauses of the License cannot be put into effect for any reason whatsoever, the other provisions shall nevertheless retain their full validity. The Parties shall attempt, through good faith negotiations, to adapt or replace the clause(s) that proved to be inapplicable. The failure of the Parties to reach an agreement for the adaptation or replacement of the provisions in question shall not affect the validity of the License.

21. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

The License is subject to French law.

Any dispute not resolved amicably within a period of thirty (30) days may be brought before the competent French courts.

22. Acceptance of the License

Access (download or otherwise), installation, or use of the Program implies unreserved acceptance of the License. The License is also applicable to any subsequent update or any new version of the Program.