Intellectual Property & Content Policy

This Intellectual Property & Content Policy (the "IP Policy") sets the rules for ownership, use, licensing, and takedown of every piece of content displayed on or submitted to korena.eu (the "Site"). It is published by "Martial Labs" Ltd. trading as KORENA (the "Operator", "we", "us") and forms part of the Terms of Sale and the Acceptable Use Policy.

Quick read: KORENA owns its photos, polygon outlines, dimensions, Capture Bundles, descriptions, software, and brand. Partner Yards own their yard-branded content but license it to us to display. When you (a buyer or visitor) post a review, upload a photo of a finished piece, or submit any other content to the Site, you keep ownership but you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, sub-licensable licence to use that content however we want, including to train our AI systems, in our marketing, and in our publications. If you think content on the Site infringes your IP, email abuse@korena.eu with the details listed in §6 and we will act on substantiated notices.

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1. Scope and definitions

1.1. This IP Policy applies to:

• (a) KORENA-Owned Content: every photograph, polygon outline, dimension reading, Capture Bundle, listing description, slab metadata field, video, illustration, design element, layout, software, source code, database, brand element, trade mark, trade name, logo, and editorial text created by, commissioned by, or otherwise owned by the Operator and displayed on the Site or in any KORENA channel;
• (b) Partner Yard Content: content (yard names, logos, photographs, descriptive text about yards or operations, partner-yard biographies, regional information) supplied to us by a Partner Yard and displayed on the Site under licence from that yard; and
• (c) User-Submitted Content: any content submitted to the Site or to us by any visitor, account holder, Consumer Buyer, Business Buyer, or other user, including (without limitation) reviews, ratings, written comments, photographs of finished pieces, project descriptions, images, video, audio, support correspondence, suggestions, and any other material posted to a free-text field, uploaded through an account surface, or sent to us by email or chat for inclusion on the Site.

1.2. "Capture Bundle" has the meaning given in the Terms of Sale §1. "Partner Yard" has the meaning given in the same section. "Consumer" and "Business Buyer" are defined in the Terms of Sale §1.

1.3. This IP Policy operationalises the IP rules summarised in Terms of Sale §15, expands them, and prevails over §15 in case of conflict to the extent the IP Policy gives the Operator broader rights or the user clearer rights.

1.4. This IP Policy is governed by Bulgarian law, in particular the Bulgarian Copyright and Related Rights Act (Закон за авторското право и сродните му права, "ZAPSP"), and by the EU framework cited at the end of this document.

2. KORENA-Owned Content

2.1. Ownership. All KORENA-Owned Content is the exclusive property of "Martial Labs" Ltd. trading as KORENA, or is used under a licence sufficient for the use we make of it. All rights are reserved except as expressly granted by this IP Policy or by the Terms of Sale.

2.2. Trade marks and brand. "KORENA", the KORENA logo, the KORENA wordmark, the slab-polygon visual idiom, and any other distinctive sign used to identify our goods and services are trade marks of "Martial Labs" Ltd. (whether registered or unregistered). You may not use these marks without our prior written consent, except for fair-use references that comply with §2.4.

2.3. No reuse without permission. Except as expressly permitted by this IP Policy or by §15.2 of the Terms of Sale, you may not reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, sell, sub-licence, or create derivative works from KORENA-Owned Content. This applies in particular to listing photographs, polygon outlines, dimensions, Capture Bundles, listing descriptions, and the structural data of the catalogue.

2.4. Narrow private-use exception (Buyers only). A Buyer who has purchased a Slab from us may use the listing photographs of that specific Slab for personal, non-commercial display (for example, a social-media post showing the new dining-table material), with attribution to KORENA (e.g., "Slab from korena.eu"). This exception does not extend to: (a) resale or sub-licensing of the photographs; (b) use to advertise competing goods or services; (c) extraction of the polygon outline, dimensions, or Capture Bundle data; (d) any use after the Buyer ceases to own the physical Slab.

2.5. Fair-use references. Editorial and journalistic use of the KORENA name and logo to refer to KORENA (for example, a press article about us) is permitted without our prior consent, provided the use does not imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation. Quotation of short excerpts from KORENA-Owned Content for criticism, review, news reporting, scholarship, or parody is permitted to the extent allowed by Bulgarian copyright law and the EU acquis (in particular ZAPSP Articles 23–24 on free uses).

2.6. Software and database rights. The Site, the KORENA Capture iOS application, the structured database of slabs, and any related software are protected by copyright, sui generis database rights (Directive 96/9/EC), and other applicable rights. The licence granted to a Buyer to use the Site is the limited, revocable, non-exclusive licence to access and use the Site for the purpose of browsing, ordering, and managing Orders, in accordance with the Acceptable Use Policy.

3. Partner Yard Content

3.1. Ownership stays with the Yard. Partner Yard Content remains the property of the supplying Partner Yard. The Operator displays it under a licence granted by the Partner Yard sufficient for the operation of the Site (including reproduction, public display, sub-licensing to our service providers, translation into the languages we operate in, and use in our marketing of the Slabs concerned).

3.2. No reuse by visitors. Visitors and Buyers may not reproduce, modify, distribute, or publicly display Partner Yard Content except to the same extent as KORENA-Owned Content under §2.4. The Partner Yard's brand and marks are not licensed to visitors or Buyers.

3.3. Anti-circumvention. Use of Partner Yard Content to identify, contact, or solicit a Partner Yard outside the Site is prohibited under Acceptable Use Policy §3.3 and, for Business Buyers, under Terms of Sale §11.6.

4. User-Submitted Content

This section is the heart of this IP Policy. Read it carefully before you submit anything.

4.1. You keep ownership

4.1.1. As between you and us, you retain ownership of any copyright and other intellectual-property rights you have in your User-Submitted Content. We do not claim assignment or transfer of ownership.

4.1.2. We make this clear because under Bulgarian law (ZAPSP Art. 16) and the equivalent rules in several other EU member states (notably German Urheberrechtsgesetz §29), copyright in a literary or artistic work is largely inalienable during the author's lifetime. Any provision purporting to strip you of authorship or other inalienable moral rights would be void and would put the rest of this IP Policy at risk. Instead, we operate by way of a broad licence (§4.2 below).

4.2. Licence you grant to us

4.2.1. By submitting User-Submitted Content to the Site or to us, whether by posting a review, uploading a photograph of a finished piece, sending us an email or chat message intended for inclusion on the Site, or by any other means, you grant the Operator and its successors, assignees, and sub-licensees a:

• perpetual (lasting for the maximum duration permitted by applicable law, including the full term of any copyright in the User-Submitted Content);
• irrevocable (you cannot withdraw the licence; see §4.6 on deletion);
• worldwide;
• royalty-free, fully paid-up;
• non-exclusive;
• sub-licensable (we may grant the same rights, in whole or in part, to our service providers, hosting providers, AI/ML providers, marketing partners, freelancers, agents, and successors); and
• transferable (we may assign the licence in connection with a corporate restructuring, sale of business, or other transfer of the operation of the Site)

licence to use, host, store, cache, reproduce, copy, modify, adapt, edit, crop, retouch, colour-correct, format-shift, transcode, translate, create derivative works of, combine with other content, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, broadcast, communicate to the public, make available, syndicate, and otherwise exploit the User-Submitted Content, in whole or in part, in any medium and through any technology now known or later developed, for any purpose, including (without limitation):

• (a) operating, promoting, and improving the Site and our services;
• (b) marketing, advertising, public relations, and editorial use of our business in any channel (the Site, social media, paid advertising, email, print, video, trade shows);
• (c) training, fine-tuning, evaluation, and improvement of artificial-intelligence and machine-learning models used by KORENA, whether built in-house through our ai/ foundation service or operated by our service providers on our behalf, and use of the trained models for any purpose (see §5 for additional detail);
• (d) inclusion in case studies, testimonials, project galleries, "how customers use our wood" features, and similar editorial surfaces;
• (e) use in legal, regulatory, dispute-resolution, and audit contexts;
• (f) any other lawful purpose consistent with the operation of the Site.

4.2.2. The licence in §4.2.1 is granted without any obligation on our part to: (i) credit you; (ii) notify you before each use; (iii) compensate you for any use; or (iv) account to you for revenues attributable to the use. We may, but are not obliged to, credit you (e.g., "Photo by [first name]") where context makes it natural.

4.2.3. The licence in §4.2.1 survives the closure of your account, your withdrawal from any service, and your deletion of the User-Submitted Content from the Site (see §4.6).

4.3. Moral rights

4.3.1. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you waive (and agree not to assert) any moral rights you have in the User-Submitted Content, including the right to be identified as the author, the right to object to derogatory treatment, and any equivalent rights under any jurisdiction.

4.3.2. We acknowledge that under ZAPSP Art. 16, two specific moral rights are inalienable and cannot be waived: the right to claim authorship (Art. 15(1) item 2) and the right to have the author's name properly displayed (Art. 15(1) item 4). Equivalent inalienable moral rights exist under German Urheberrechtsgesetz §29 and certain other EU member-state laws.

4.3.3. To the extent that any moral right cannot be waived under applicable law, you irrevocably agree not to assert that moral right against the Operator or any of its successors, assignees, sub-licensees, service providers, or other persons exercising the licence granted under §4.2 in good faith. This is a contractual undertaking on your part not to exercise the right; it does not purport to alienate the right itself, and is intended to be enforceable to the maximum extent permitted by Bulgarian and applicable EU member-state law.

4.4. Your representations and warranties

4.4.1. By submitting User-Submitted Content you represent and warrant that:

• (a) you are the sole author and owner of the User-Submitted Content, or you have all necessary rights, licences, consents, and permissions from every person who holds rights in it (including any photographer, model, co-author, employer, or rightsholder) to grant the licence in §4.2 and to make all uses contemplated by §4.2;
• (b) the User-Submitted Content does not infringe any copyright, trade mark, patent, trade secret, database right, sui generis right, right of publicity, right of privacy, contractual right, or other right of any person;
• (c) the User-Submitted Content does not violate any applicable law, regulation, or order, including consumer-protection law, advertising law, defamation law, hate-speech law, child-protection law, and sanctions regimes;
• (d) the User-Submitted Content is truthful, accurate, and not misleading; in particular, any review you submit reflects your honest opinion of a Slab actually purchased, and you have not been paid by a competitor or by anyone else to post the review;
• (e) any identifiable individual depicted in the User-Submitted Content (other than yourself in your private capacity) has given informed, written consent to the depiction and to the licence granted in §4.2, and you can produce evidence of that consent on our reasonable request;
• (f) where the User-Submitted Content depicts a place, object, or work protected by intellectual-property or contractual rights (for example, a building protected by architect's copyright, an artwork in the background of a photo of a finished piece), you have obtained any necessary clearances; and
• (g) you are at least 18 years old, or 14 or older with verifiable parental consent in line with the threshold in our Privacy Policy §9.

4.5. Indemnity

4.5.1. You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Operator, its officers, directors, employees, agents, service providers, and sub-licensees from and against any and all third-party claims, demands, suits, proceedings, losses, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with any User-Submitted Content you submit, any breach by you of §4.4, or any breach by you of this IP Policy.

4.5.2. Where the user is a Consumer, the indemnity in §4.5.1 applies only to the extent the loss is the direct consequence of the user's breach and the Consumer's liability is not capped or excluded by mandatory consumer-protection law (in particular Bulgarian consumer-protection law and the EU Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU). Nothing in §4.5.1 limits the user's statutory rights as a Consumer.

4.6. We may use, edit, remove, or refuse User-Submitted Content

4.6.1. We are under no obligation to use, display, or retain any User-Submitted Content. We may, in our sole discretion and without notice or liability:

• (a) refuse to publish any User-Submitted Content;
• (b) edit, crop, format, or translate User-Submitted Content;
• (c) remove or hide User-Submitted Content from the Site, including in response to a takedown notice under §6, in response to a counter-notice that does not satisfy §7, or for any reason; and
• (d) keep copies of removed User-Submitted Content for legal, regulatory, audit, dispute-resolution, security, anti-fraud, training, or backup purposes.

4.6.2. Removal of User-Submitted Content from the Site does not terminate the licence granted under §4.2. We may continue to use copies that have already been incorporated into our marketing assets, training datasets, derivative works, archives, or sub-licensee distributions. This is a deliberate trade-off: it lets us build long-term marketing and AI assets without those assets breaking when a user closes their account.

4.6.3. If you delete your account, your reviews, comments, and photographs may be retained on the Site in pseudonymised or anonymised form (for example, attributed to "A KORENA customer") at our discretion, subject to your data-subject rights described in the Privacy Policy §7. You retain your data-subject rights under the GDPR even where the licence in §4.2 survives. See §10 below.

5. Use of content for AI and machine-learning systems

5.1. KORENA-Owned Content. We may use KORENA-Owned Content to train, fine-tune, evaluate, and operate AI/ML systems built or commissioned by us, including those operated through our internal AI foundation service.

5.2. User-Submitted Content for AI training. The licence granted by users under §4.2.1 expressly includes the right to use User-Submitted Content for training, fine-tuning, evaluation, and improvement of AI/ML systems used by KORENA, and for the operation of those systems thereafter. We consider this a legitimate and necessary use given the central role of image and language models in operating a piece-level wood marketplace.

5.3. Personal data in AI/ML. Where User-Submitted Content contains personal data, our use of it for AI/ML purposes is also governed by the Privacy Policy. In particular, our current published position is that user personal data such as name, email, addresses, order history, and engagement metrics is not used to train AI/ML models. See Privacy Policy §3.7. Where this position changes (for example, if we want to fine-tune a customer-service model on support transcripts), we will update the Privacy Policy and notify affected users in line with Privacy Policy §10.

5.4. TDM reservation against third parties. We expressly reserve the rights of the Operator and of every Partner Yard whose Partner Yard Content is displayed on the Site against text-and-data mining by third parties for the purposes of Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market. This reservation is expressed in machine-readable form via the Site's robots.txt, X-Robots-Tag HTTP headers, and /ai.txt declaration where deployed (see Acceptable Use Policy §3.5). Lawful research text-and-data mining under Article 3 of the same Directive remains permitted.

6. Notice of intellectual-property infringement (takedown)

If you believe that content displayed on the Site infringes a copyright, trade mark, or other intellectual-property right that you own or are authorised to enforce, you may submit a notice to us at abuse@korena.eu.

6.1. Format of notice. To allow us to act on your notice without delay, the notice must include all of the following:

1. Your full legal name, postal address, telephone number, and email address (and, if you are acting as an agent, the same details for the rightsholder you represent and a description of your authority).
2. A specific identification of the intellectual-property right you claim has been infringed (for example, the registered trade-mark number, the title and date of the copyrighted work, or a URL to the original work).
3. A specific identification of the allegedly infringing content on the Site, with the URL of each page or content item, and (where helpful) screenshots or item identifiers.
4. A description of how you believe the content infringes your right, with reference to applicable law where you can.
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorised by you, your agent, or the law.
6. A statement, made under penalty of perjury (or its equivalent under the law of your jurisdiction), that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the rightsholder or are authorised to act on the rightsholder's behalf.
7. Your physical or electronic signature.

6.2. Acknowledgement and decision. We will acknowledge receipt of a complete notice within two (2) Business Days. We will assess the notice in good faith, take any action we consider proportionate (which may include removing or disabling access to the content, requesting further information, or rejecting the notice with reasons), and notify you of the action taken or our decision within a reasonable period taking the complexity of the notice into account.

6.3. Notice to the user. Where we remove or disable access to User-Submitted Content in response to a notice under this section, we will, where lawful and reasonably practicable, notify the user who submitted the content and provide them with the substance of the notice (with the notifier's personal contact details redacted unless disclosure is required for the user to exercise their rights), so that they may submit a counter-notice under §7.

6.4. Bad-faith and abusive notices. Where a notice is made in bad faith, contains false statements, or is filed for the purpose of harassment, anticompetitive interference, or to suppress lawful expression, we may reject the notice, restore the content, terminate the notifier's access to the Site, and pursue legal remedies. Knowingly submitting a materially false notice may give rise to liability under Bulgarian law and other applicable laws.

6.5. Relationship to the DSA notice-and-action procedure. This §6 is the IP-specific takedown pathway. The general procedure for notifying us of any other illegal content on the Site is set out in Acceptable Use Policy §7, which implements our obligations as a hosting service under Article 16 of the EU Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065). Notifiers may use either pathway; we will route the notice internally to the right team. Where a notice is plainly an IP claim, we will treat it under this §6 to give the user the benefit of the counter-notice procedure in §7.

7. Counter-notice

If your User-Submitted Content has been removed or disabled in response to a notice under §6 and you believe the removal was wrong (for example, because the content does not infringe, because you have a licence, because the use is permitted under fair-use or quotation exceptions, or because the notice was sent in error or bad faith), you may submit a counter-notice to abuse@korena.eu.

7.1. Format of counter-notice. A counter-notice must include all of the following:

1. Your full legal name, postal address, telephone number, and email address.
2. A specific identification of the content that was removed or disabled, with the URL where it previously appeared and any item identifier.
3. A statement, made under penalty of perjury (or its equivalent under the law of your jurisdiction), that you have a good-faith belief that the content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the content to be removed or disabled.
4. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the competent courts in Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria (and, where you are a Consumer resident in another EU member state, that you do not waive the consumer-protection jurisdictional rules of your country of habitual residence under Regulation (EU) 1215/2012), and that you will accept service of process from the original notifier or their agent.
5. Your physical or electronic signature.

7.2. Forwarding and restoration. On receipt of a complete counter-notice we will forward a copy to the original notifier. If the notifier does not provide us, within ten (10) Business Days of our forwarding the counter-notice, with evidence that it has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the relevant activity, we may, in our discretion, restore the content. Restoration is not automatic; we may decline to restore content where, in our reasonable judgement, restoration would expose us to ongoing legal risk.

7.3. Out-of-court dispute settlement. Users dissatisfied with our decision under §6 or §7 may also use any out-of-court dispute settlement body certified under Article 21 of the EU Digital Services Act, where available.

8. Repeat-infringer policy

8.1. We will, in appropriate circumstances and at our discretion, terminate the accounts of users who are the subject of multiple substantiated infringement notices within a rolling twelve-month period. "Substantiated" means a notice that we have accepted under §6 and that has not been successfully challenged by counter-notice or by a court.

8.2. We may also terminate accounts on a single occurrence of egregious infringement (for example, deliberate uploading of pirated material, or use of the Site as a vector for distributing third-party copyrighted content).

8.3. Termination under this §8 follows the consequences of breach in Acceptable Use Policy §6 and, for Consumer accounts, observes the notice procedure in Terms of Sale §16.2 where the breach is curable.

9. No obligation to monitor

9.1. We do not pre-screen User-Submitted Content. We have no general obligation to monitor the content stored on the Site, nor any general obligation to actively seek facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity, in line with Article 8 of the EU Digital Services Act.

9.2. The absence of pre-screening does not affect the validity of the representations, warranties, indemnities, and licences in this IP Policy. By submitting content you accept that you (and not we) are responsible in the first instance for what you submit.

10. Personal data and the Privacy Policy

10.1. User-Submitted Content frequently contains personal data: your name, your image, your home, identifiable third parties. Our processing of personal data contained in User-Submitted Content is also governed by the Privacy Policy, which implements the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and the Bulgarian Personal Data Protection Act.

10.2. The licence granted under §4.2 is a copyright/IP licence. It does not override your data-subject rights under the GDPR, including the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection set out in Privacy Policy §7. Where you exercise a GDPR right (for example, a request for erasure of personal data) we will balance that right against any applicable exception (Art. 17(3) GDPR, including the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and information, and the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims). Where personal data must be erased under the GDPR, we will erase it from active systems and from any AI/ML training datasets to the extent technically feasible; we may retain pseudonymised or anonymised derivatives that no longer constitute personal data.

10.3. Where there is a tension between this IP Policy and the Privacy Policy, the Privacy Policy prevails to the extent necessary to give effect to your data-subject rights.

11. Open-source and third-party components

11.1. The Site and the KORENA Capture iOS application incorporate open-source software components. Each such component is used in accordance with its applicable open-source licence; the relevant licences and notices are made available where required by those licences.

11.2. Trade marks, logos, and product names of third parties referenced on the Site (for example, Stripe, Speedy, Econt, Supabase, Apple, OpenCV) belong to their respective owners. Their use on the Site is for identification only and does not imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation beyond what is described in our published documentation.

12. Governing law and jurisdiction

12.1. This IP Policy is governed by Bulgarian law, in particular the Bulgarian Copyright and Related Rights Act (ZAPSP) and the Bulgarian Trade Marks and Geographical Indications Act, supplemented by the directly applicable EU framework (notably Regulations (EU) 2017/1001 (EUTMR), 2022/2065 (DSA), 2016/679 (GDPR), and Directives 2001/29/EC (InfoSoc), 96/9/EC (Database), 2004/48/EC (Enforcement), and 2019/790 (DSM)).

12.2. Consumers. Where the user is a Consumer resident in the EU, mandatory consumer-protection rules of the user's country of habitual residence continue to apply, and the Consumer retains the rights of forum and applicable law set out in Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 (Brussels Ia) and Regulation (EC) 593/2008 (Rome I). A Consumer may bring proceedings against us in the courts of Sofia, Bulgaria, at the Consumer's election.

12.3. Other users. The competent courts in Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria, have exclusive jurisdiction over disputes between us and any user other than a Consumer under or in connection with this IP Policy.

13. Changes to this IP Policy

13.1. We may amend this IP Policy from time to time. The version in force at the moment User-Submitted Content is submitted is the version that governs the licence granted in respect of that submission; subsequent amendments do not retroactively narrow or broaden a previously-granted licence.

13.2. Where an amendment materially affects the rights of an existing account holder, we will notify the account holder by email at least thirty (30) days before the change takes effect, in line with the change-notice mechanism in Terms of Sale §16.2 and Privacy Policy §10.

14. Languages

14.1. This IP Policy is authored in English, which is the working source of truth. Translations may be made available on the Site. Where required by law (notably for Bulgarian-resident Consumers under Article 49 of the Bulgarian Consumer Protection Act), the Bulgarian translation is the binding version.

15. Contact

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This IP Policy implements and is consistent with:

• Bulgarian Copyright and Related Rights Act (ZAPSP), in particular Articles 3, 15, 16, 18, 23–24, 35–36
• Bulgarian Trade Marks and Geographical Indications Act
• Directive 2001/29/EC (InfoSoc Directive)
• Directive 96/9/EC (Database Directive)
• Directive 2004/48/EC (IP Enforcement Directive)
• Directive (EU) 2019/790 (Digital Single Market Directive), in particular Articles 3 and 4 (text-and-data mining exceptions and reservations)
• Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 (European Union Trade Mark Regulation)
• Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act), in particular Articles 8 (no general monitoring), 16 (notice and action), 17 (statement of reasons), 20 (internal complaint-handling), and 21 (out-of-court dispute settlement)
• Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR)

Last reviewed: 2026-05-03 · Next review: 2027-05-03 (or earlier on trigger).