This Open License and Contribution Agreement sets out the terms and conditions which apply to any natural person or legal entity (“Contributor”) who accesses or implements the UAE Open Finance Standards, including associated specifications, guidelines, documentation files, and downloadable applications (the “Standards”), or who contributes to the development of these UAE Open Finance Standards. You must agree to the terms of this Contribution Agreement before making a Contribution to the UAE Open Banking Standards. This Contribution Agreement covers any and all Contributions that you submit to the UAE Open Banking Standards, either now or in the future.

Open License

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) grants to any contributor, developer, implementer, or other interested party a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display, the UAE Open Banking Standards, solely for the purposes of developing and implementing the Standards, provided that attribution be made to CBUAE as the source of the material, but that such attribution does not indicate the endorsement by CBUAE.

The Standards is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. In no event shall CBUAE be held liable for any claim, damages, or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or for any other common law, equitable or statutory cause of action, arising from, out of or in connection with the Standards or the use or other dealings in the Standards by any Contributor or other third party.

The Standards, any amendments, and any contributions (as defined in the Contribution Agreement below) are considered as “Collective Work” as described in Copyright Law governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 38/2021, which grants protection to innovative literary, artistic, and scientific creations in any form, expression, significance, or purpose.

Contribution Agreement

As defined in the Open License above, CBUAE intends to make the Standards available for implementation by any Contributor without a fee. To facilitate this, any Contributor who is providing feedback, comments, suggestions, or other submissions regarding the Standards, or uploads, submits, transmits, or distributes content regarding the Standards (but excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise designated as “Not a Submission” or “Not a Contribution”) (“Contribution”), continuously represents and warrants that:

If the Contributor is a legal entity, its representatives are, and at all times material will be, either its employees (who will provide Contributions within their scope of employment and who are legally obligated to assign to Contributor all intellectual property created within the scope of their employment), or its independent contractors (who are under written obligation to assign to Contributor all rights in any intellectual property created within the scope of their engagement).
If the Contributor is an individual, and the employer(s) of the Contributor has rights to intellectual property that are included in the Contribution, the Contributor represents that they are permitted to make Contributions on behalf of that employer, or that the Contributor’s employer has waived such rights in the Contribution, or that the Contributor’s employer has entered into a separate Contribution Agreement with the CBUAE.
Contributor has no obligation to any third party (e.g., an obligation to assign inventions) that would preclude or limit:
1. participating in any working group or consultation process;
2. making any Contributions to the Standards; or
3. granting rights in (or making commitments related to) intellectual property in any Contribution.
Contributor, itself, and through its representatives (if Contributor is a legal entity), has the unfettered right to make any Contributions, fully in accordance with this Open License and this Agreement. Contributor (whether a legal entity or an individual) represents that it is entitled to grant the licences set out in this Agreement.
All Contributions are considered as Collective Work.
All Contributions, and other materials shared with CBUAE and/or any other Contributors for the purpose of developing the Standards (but not including materials shared with Contributors for any purpose other than developing the Standards), will be considered non-confidential information, regardless of any markings to the contrary included thereon or related thereto.
Some Contributions may not be subject to copyright. To the extent, however, that a Contribution is or may be subject to copyright, the Contributor hereby grants a perpetual, irrevocable (except in case of breach of this license), non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license in such copyright to CBUAE, and to other Contributors, to reproduce, prepare derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display, the Contribution and derivative works thereof solely for purposes of developing and implementing the Standards.
Contributor represents that Contributions comprised of written submissions submitted by such a Contributor to CBUAE comply with any copyright attribution requirements relating to third party content.
Subject to (8) above, Contributor represents that Contributions are original works of the Contributor. Where a Contribution contains content that is not an original work of the Contributor, the Contribution may be submitted provided that the Contributor:
1. retains all copyright and license information that subsisted in the content received by, or obtained by the Contributor;
2. includes in the Contribution a statement that the Contribution includes content of a third party and providing the name of the third party(ies) and details of any applicable licences or restrictions in relation to the third party content; and
3. adheres to any guidelines, instructions, or requirements issued by the CBUAE with regards to third party content.
Subject to each Contributor’s rights in individual Contributions, the copyright in any draft or final version of the Standards will be owned solely by CBUAE. Each Contributor will execute and deliver such instruments and take such other actions as and when CBUAE may reasonably request to perfect or protect CBUAE’s copyright in the Standards.
Subject to any licensing obligations herein, Contributor retains all rights in and to its Contribution, and there are no other limitations whatsoever on Contributor’s ability to exercise any copyright rights in its Contribution or any portion thereof.
There is no requirement or expectation by others that Contributors should disclose patents or patent applications, however CBUAE hereby disclaims any responsibility for identifying the existence, or for evaluating the applicability, of any patents, patent applications, or other rights (including copyrights) claimed to be applicable to the Standards and will take no position on the validity or scope of any such rights.
Contributor acknowledges that CBUAE has no duty to publish or otherwise use or disseminate any Contribution.
Contributor shall keep strictly confidential and shall not disclose, or cause or permit to be disclosed, or publish, or cause to be published, to any person or entity, any information acquired during the development process, unless provided with explicit written authorization by CBUAE to do so.
Contributor hereby grants permission to CBUAE to reference the Contributor’s name(s) and email address(es) without the prior written consent of Contributor, but only in association with the Contribution(s) of Contributor and not with respect to any work derived from such Contribution(s).
Contributions and Contributor’s personal details (e.g. names and email addresses) may, in accordance with applicable data protection laws, be stored on cloud services hosted outside the United Arab Emirates.
Contributor agrees to notify CBUAE, in writing, of any facts or circumstances of which Contributor later becomes aware that would make the Contributors representations in this Agreement inaccurate in any respect.
The laws of the United Arab Emirates shall govern the construction, validity and operation of this Agreement and the performance of all obligations hereunder.
The courts of the United Arab Emirates shall have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any dispute or matter arising under or in connection with this Agreement.

In the course of contributing to the development of the UAE Open Finance Standards, a Contributor may become aware of the Confidential Information of another party. Confidential Information means all confidential or proprietary information relating to the business, assets, affairs, customers, clients, suppliers, plans, intentions, operations, processes, product information, specifications, guidelines, know-how, technical information, designs, trade secrets, intellectual property rights, software, information, findings, data or analysis, or any other information that is identified by a party as being of a confidential or proprietary nature.

Each party to this Open Licence and Contribution Agreement undertakes that, in the course of participation in, or contribution to, this Open Licence and Contribution Agreement it shall not, at any time, disclose the Confidential Information of another party which that party directly or indirectly discloses, or makes available, before, on, or after the date of this Agreement.

No party shall use any other party's Confidential Information for any purpose other than to exercise its rights or perform its obligations under, or in connection with, this Open Licence and Contribution Agreement.

Each party may disclose the other party's Confidential Information:

a) to its employees, officers, representatives, contractors, subcontractors or advisers who need to know such information for the purposes of exercising the party’s rights or carrying out its obligations under or in connection with this Open Licence and Contribution Agreement. Each party shall ensure that its employees, officers, representatives, contractors, subcontractors, or advisers to whom it discloses the other party's Confidential Information complies with the above obligations as to confidentiality;

b) where permitted to do so by the other party; and

c) as may be required by law, a court of competent jurisdiction or any governmental or regulatory authority.

By accessing or implementing the Standards, or by providing any Contribution to the Standards, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Open License and Contribution Agreement.