Rules

• MIT and non-MIT students are invited to participate.
• Registrations must be received by October 24th at 5 p.m. EST.
• Students must submit their .edu email address at submission time.
• There is no fee for entry.
• Submissions may be entered by individuals or teams (up to 5 members).

Student Status

• Each team must have at least one currently registered student.
• Currently registered students include all full- and part-time undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students only.
• Post-doctoral candidates are eligible to participate, but may not serve as the student on a submitting team.
• The presenting member of the team must be a current student.
• An individual may serve as the qualifying student for exactly one team per track.
• Each student may only present one idea per track.

Entries

• Each team may enter one idea per track and the same idea cannot be entered in multiple tracks.
• Entries must be the original work of entrants.

• Ideas which have won any money in previous $100K competitions are not eligible for re-entry.
• The MIT $100K Organizing Committee reserves the right to admit any given idea in a track different from the one selected by the team at the time of online registration.

Presentation Rules

• Entrants will have 60 seconds to present their idea.
• The entire pitch must be made by one person alone.
• The presenting member of the team must be a current student
• No notes may be used in the presentation.
• No props may be used in the presentation (e.g. PowerPoint, t-shirts, etc.).
• The presenting member of the team must be a currently enrolled student (verified by the .edu email)
• The presenting member of the team must be present at the Finale Event Nov. 2, 2011. Failure to show up will result in the forfeiture of any prize won.

Previously-Funded Ideas

• Ideas which have won any money in previous $100K competitions are not eligible for re-entry.
• Teams must not have accepted any institutional funding for the idea being presented. Any source of funding that has an equity ownership component, including funding from non-managing founders, is considered institutional.
• Teams must disclose any funding already received at the time of registration.
• Teams must not have accepted any non-institutional funding in excess of $15,000. (Non-institutional funding includes contests, grants, friends and family, bank loans, etc., where there is no equity ownership associated with the funding.)
• There are forms of funding that may fall into a gray area. In these cases, the $100K Organizing Committee will deliberate on the eligibility and communicate the decision to the team. This decision is final and cannot be appealed.

Disqualification

• Failure to comply with all of the rules will result in a disqualification.
• The Judging Panel reserves the right to disqualify any entry.
• The decision of the Judging Panel and Organizing Committee on the disqualification of an entrant is final and cannot be appealed.

Confidentiality

The identities of the contestants and the short description of the business disclosed in the registration, as well as any pitch delivered during any MIT $100K event, are considered of public domain and can be used by the MIT $100K Organizing Committee for marketing and PR purposes.

Intellectual Property

Before submitting entries, the MIT $100K Organizing Committee urges contestants to confirm with appropriate advisors or legal counsel that any intellectual property described in their summary is protected by appropriate intellectual property filings, notices, patents, copyrights, etc. The MIT $100K Organizing Committee also recommends that contestants determine in advance whether their summary describes a technology, invention, copyrightable work or other intellectual property owned by MIT in accordance with MIT Policy (see: http://web.mit.edu/policies/13.0.html). The MIT Technology Licensing Office is available to answer any related questions. For any doubt about the legal status of contestants’ own or third party intellectual property or any other aspect of their plan, the MIT $100K Organizing Committee advises entrants to seek independent legal counsel.

Press & Publicity

All teams are required to participate in media and press opportunities related to the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. This includes, but is not limited to, the following opportunities:

• All teams may be asked to provide a 150-200 word description that will be made available to media and may be released publicly, either in part or in its entirety.
• All teams may be asked to speak to the media for competition related interviews when requested by the organizing committee.
• All teams may be asked to provide quotes and/or content for any competition related press releases.
• Participating in media and press opportunities in no way, shape or form requires teams to disclose any proprietary or otherwise confidential information related to their businesses. The MIT $100K organizing committee agrees to provide consultation to any team, upon request, to avoid such disclosures while participating in press related opportunities.

Entrants may not use the name of “Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” or any variation, adaptation, or abbreviation thereof, or the names of any of its trustees, officers, faculty, students, employees, or agents, or any trademark owned by MIT, in any advertising or publicity, without the written permission of the Director of the MIT’s News Office.

MIT MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MIT ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMPETITION, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT SHALL MIT, ITS TRUSTEES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, STUDENTS, THE MIT ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMPETITION JUDGES AND MENTORS, AND AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY ADVICE, INFORMATION OR DECISIONS MADE FOR OR ON BEHALF OF THE MIT ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMPETITION OR FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING ECONOMIC DAMAGES OR INJURY TO PROPERTY AND LOST PROFITS, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER MIT SHALL BE ADVISED, SHALL HAVE OTHER REASON TO KNOW OR IN FACT SHALL KNOW OF THE POSSIBILITY OF THE FOREGOING.