# Contributor License Agreement (CLA)

**mcp-gateway** — Licensor: **Mikko Parkkola** ("Licensor"), copyright holder of the original work.

> Maintainer note: this CLA exists so the Licensor can offer **commercial
> licenses** for the Noncommercial-licensed code. A plain inbound=outbound clause
> or a DCO certifies provenance but does **not** grant the relicensing authority
> required to sell commercial licenses on contributed code — hence this CLA.
> The Licensor approved this text on 2026-09-16; it is operative from that
> date and applies to every Contribution submitted while it has been in the
> repository.

By contributing to mcp-gateway (a "Contribution": any original work of
authorship you submit — code, docs, configuration — via pull request, patch, or
otherwise), you ("Contributor") agree to the terms below for that Contribution
and all future Contributions, unless you state otherwise in writing at the time
of submission.

## 1. You keep your copyright

You retain all right, title, and interest in your Contributions. This CLA grants
licenses; it is **not** an assignment of copyright.

## 2. Copyright license (broad, sublicensable, relicensable)

You grant the Licensor a **perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free,
irrevocable** license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly
display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute your Contributions and
derivative works, **with the right to relicense** the Contribution under any
license terms the Licensor chooses, **including proprietary and commercial
terms**, and to sublicense these rights through multiple tiers.

This authority is what lets the Licensor include your Contribution in both the
free (PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0) distribution **and** in paid
commercial licenses of mcp-gateway.

## 3. Patent license

You grant the Licensor and all recipients of mcp-gateway a **perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable** (except as stated below)
patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and
otherwise transfer your Contribution, where such license applies only to those
patent claims licensable by you that are necessarily infringed by your
Contribution alone or by combination of your Contribution with the project.

If any entity institutes patent litigation alleging that your Contribution, or
mcp-gateway, constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, the patent
licenses granted under this CLA to that entity terminate as of the date such
litigation is filed.

## 4. Your representations

You represent that:

1. Each Contribution is **your original creation**, or you have the necessary
   rights to submit it and to grant the licenses above.
2. You are **legally entitled** to grant these licenses. If your employer has
   rights to intellectual property you create, you represent that you have
   received permission to make the Contribution on behalf of that employer, or
   that your employer has waived such rights, or that your employer has executed
   a separate corporate CLA with the Licensor.
3. Each Contribution does **not**, to your knowledge, violate any third party's
   copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or other rights.
4. You will notify the Licensor if you become aware that any of these
   representations is or becomes inaccurate.
5. Third-party material in a Contribution (if any) is clearly identified, and you
   have the right to submit it under a compatible license, which you disclose.

## 5. No obligation

The Licensor is not obligated to use, merge, or distribute your Contribution.
Contributions are provided **AS IS**, without warranty of any kind, except for
the representations you expressly make in Section 4.

## 6. Entity contributions

If you contribute on behalf of a company or other legal entity, "you" includes
that entity, and the person accepting this CLA represents that they are
authorized to bind it. An entity may also sign a single corporate CLA covering
its employees by emailing the contact below.

## Recording your acceptance

You accept this CLA by contributing, as stated above — no signature is
required and none is requested before a merge. If you would like the
acceptance recorded explicitly, add the following line to the description of
your **first** pull request (one time; it then covers your future
Contributions):

```
I have read and agree to the mcp-gateway Contributor License Agreement (CLA.md).
Signed-off-by: Your Name <your@email>
```

Corporate/entity CLAs and questions: **mikko.parkkola@iki.fi**.

This CLA is governed by the laws of Finland, without regard to conflict-of-laws
rules. The courts of Finland have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising
out of or relating to this CLA, with the District Court of Helsinki (Helsingin
käräjäoikeus) as the court of first instance. If any provision is unenforceable,
the remainder stays in effect.