LICENCE TO USE CTOH PRODUCTS

Issue 3 – Septembre 2022
IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE USING CTOH PRODUCTS

1 – Introduction

  • i. CTOH (Centre de Topographie des Océans et de l’Hydrosphère) is a French National Observation Service, supported by INSU (Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers), the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales), UPS (Université Paul Sabatier) and IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement).
  • ii. The role of CTOH is to assist scientific users and the different space agencies in the development of new altimetric applications. To this end, CTOH operates research-grade processing chains to provide new added-value products to the scientific community, based on data from the space agencies (CNES, ESA, NASA), and their ground segments (SSALTO, SSALTO/DUACS, CWWIC).
  • iii. CTOH Products are listed in the CTOH Catalogue.

2 – Interpretation and Definitions

CTOH Catalogue means the list of CTOH Products made available via the CTOH website
to the Licensee at any given time.

CTOH Product(s) means those products created by CTOH and made available for use via
the CTOH catalogue.

Intellectual Property Rights: intellectual property rights of all kinds regardless of the form
or medium stored, including:

  • all patents
  • rights to inventions
  • copyright and related rights
  • moral rights
  • trademarks and service marks
  • trade names and domain names
  • rights in get-up
  • rights to goodwill or to sue for passing off or unfair competition
  • rights in design
  • rights in computer software
  • database rights
  • rights in confidential information (including know-how and trade secrets)
  • any other rights in the nature of intellectual property rights.


in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications (or rights to
apply) for, and renewals or extensions of, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or
forms of protection which subsist or will subsist now or in the future in any part of the world
together with all rights of action in relation to the infringement of any of the above;

Licence means the terms and conditions of this Licence as amended from time to time;

Licensor means the owner of CTOH products;

Licensee means the individual or organization which, subject to the terms and conditions
of this Licence, is permitted to use CTOH Products;

Value Added Product means a product which has been created by modifying a CTOH
Product to a higher processing level which retains the original source data and structure;

Derivative Work means any product and/or information which has been derived,
developed and irreversibly modified from CTOH Product(s) or Value Added Product(s) and
does not retain the original structure of a CTOH Product;

Commercial Use means any development of Value Added Products, Derivative work or
services based on CTOH products which will contribute to a sale, a licence or any other
commercial activity.


3 – Licence duration

The License comes into effect from the download of the Product, by the licensee. It is
granted for a period of 5 (five) years.

4 – Licence permission

The Licensee is hereby granted a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty free licence, (subject
to the terms and conditions of this agreement) to:

  1. make and use such reasonable copies of CTOH Products for internal use and back up purposes;
  2. modify, adapt, develop, create and distribute Value Added Products or Derivative Work from CTOH Products for any purpose (scientific, operational, commercial, etc.).
  3. The Licensee makes a commitment to not distribute any CTOH Product in its original form via any media.
  4. The Licensees will ensure that original CTOH products – or value added products or derivative works developed from CTOH Products – including publications and pictures shall credit CTOH by explicitly making mention of the originator.
  5. The Licensees will ensure that original CTOH products – or value added products or derivative works developed from CTOH Products – including publications and pictures shall credit CTOH by explicitly making mention of the originator in the following manner:

    • i. “Generated using CTOH Products” in case of use of CTOH products and citing the bibliographic reference that corresponds to each product used.
  6. The Licensee will abide by the terms and conditions of this Licence and ensure that its staff, students, contractors and agents also do.
  7. The Licensee will maintain such records to document and trace use of CTOH Products and make sure that its staff, students, contractors, agents and customers also do. The Licensee will make such records available to the CTOH system upon reasonable notice being given. This requirement will be propagated in all descending licences.


5 – Availability commitment

All the products provided by CTOH are research-grade, and made on a best-effort basis, none of them are qualified as operational


6 – Intellectual Property Rights

  • All Intellectual Property Rights in CTOH Products belong, and will continue to belong, to CTOH.

This property is protected by the copyright under French Law and according to the terms of applicable international conventions. It is also protected by articles L 341-1 to 343-4 of the Industrial Property Code as modified by the French law dated July 1st, 1998, relating to the protection of databases and similar laws in European countries, which have transferred European directive No. 96/9, dated March 11, 1996, on the protection of databases, to their respective legislations.

  • All new Intellectual Property Rights created as a result of modifying or adapting CTOH Products will be owned by the Licensee.

7 – Disclaimers

  • CTOH DO NOT WARRANT THAT CTOH PRODUCTS WILL BE FREE FROM ERRORS OR OMISSIONS AND THAT SUCH ERRORS OR OMISSIONS CAN BE RECTIFIED, OR THAT THE LICENSEE WILL HAVE UNINTERRUPTED ACCESS TO CTOH PRODUCTS.
  • CTOH EXCLUDE ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, CONDITIONS, TERMS, UNDERTAKINGS, and OBLIGATIONS WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED BY STATUTE INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR OTHERWISE TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

8 – Liabilities

CTOH, nor any other party whatsoever having participated in the preparation of the CTOH Products, can be held responsible for any damage whatsoever, direct or indirect, physical or moral, resulting from use of the CTOH Products or from incapacity to use it, nor be charged to this effect.

9 – Breach of this Licence

When CTOH considers that a breach of this Licence has occurred, it may at its discretion take action as deemed appropriate. Failure to comply with the terms and conditions of the Licence Permissions constitutes a material breach of the terms of use for which the Licensee is permitted to use CTOH Products and may result in the CTOH system taking all or any of the following actions.

  • Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of the Licensee’s right to use CTOH Products.
  • Issue a warning to the Licensee.
  • Legal proceedings against the Licensee for reimbursement of all costs on an
    indemnity basis (including but not limited to reasonable administrative and legal
    costs) resulting from the breach.
  • Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as CTOH feel is
    necessary or as required by law.


CTOH excludes its liability for all action it may take in response to breaches of this Licence. The actions described above are not limited, and CTOH may take any other action it deems appropriate. Moreover, in the case of violation of any of the above clauses, in particular those relating to commercial use and non-redistribution, the Licensee shall be excluded from access to CTOH products.


10 – Governing Law

This Licence will be construed and enforced in accordance with French Law in conjunction with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). ICC’s International Court of Arbitration will have exclusive jurisdiction to deal with any dispute that arises out of or in connection with this Licence.


11 – Changes to this Licence

CTOH may revise this Licence at any time and will provide reasonable notice to the Licensee of any revision made.


12 – Point of contact

For all information or documents exchanged during this contract, the point of contact is the CTOH User service: ctoh_newsNO SPAM -- FILTER@NO SPAM -- FILTERgroupes.renater.fr.

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