what is an example of an assignment clause

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Assignments Contract Clauses (8,849)

Grouped into 236 collections of similar clauses from business contracts.

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Assignment clause samples

Assignment . Assignor assigns to Assignee all of Assignor’s right, title, and interest in and to the Purchase Agreement, as amended.

03/25/2020 (Lodging Fund REIT III, Inc.)

to the contrary (a) Manager shall not be obligated to return or refund to Lender any Management Fee or other fee, commission or other amount already received by Manager prior to the occurrence of the Event of Default, and to which Manager was entitled under this Assignment and (b) in the event Operating Lessee loses possession of the Property in connection with exercise by Lender of its rights or remedies pursuant to this Assignment , the Note, the Security Instrument, the Loan Agreement or the other Loan Documents, Manager shall be entitled to collect any Management Fee or other fee, commission or other amount accrued but unpaid prior to the occurrence of the Event of Default, and to which Manager was entitled under this Assignment .Nothing in this Assignment shall prohibit Manager from terminating the Management Agreement pursuant to the terms thereof for failure to receive the management fee due thereunder.

Duplicate Originals, Counterparts.This Assignment may be executed in any number of duplicate originals and each duplicate original shall be deemed to be an original.This Assignment may be executed in several counterparts, each of which counterparts shall be deemed an original instrument and all of which together shall constitute a single Assignment .The failure of any party hereto to execute this Assignment , or any counterpart hereof, shall not relieve the other signatories from their obligations hereunder.

Section 6.6 Parties Bound; Assignment . This Guarantyshall be binding upon and shall inure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their respective successors, permitted assigns, heirs and legal representatives. Lender shall have the right to assign or transfer its rights under this Guaranty in connection with any assignment of the Loan and the Loan Documents. Any assignee or transferee of Lender shall be entitled to all the benefits afforded to Lender under this Guaranty. No Guarantor shall have the right to assign or transfer its rights or obligations under this Guaranty without the prior written consent of Lender, and any attempted assignment without such consent shall be null and void.

(a)the failure of Lender to comply with any request of Borrower or any other party to take any action to enforce any of the provisions hereof or of the Loan Agreement, the Note or the other Loan Documents, (b) the release, regardless of consideration, of the whole or any part of the Property, or (c) any agreement or stipulation by Lender extending the time of payment or otherwise modifying or supplementing the terms of this Assignment , the Loan Agreement, the Note or the other Loan Documents. Lender may resort for the payment and performance of the Obligations to any other security held by Lender in such order and manner as Lender, in its sole discretion, may elect. Lender may take any action to recover the Obligations, or any portion thereof, or to enforce any covenant hereof without prejudice to the right of Lender thereafter to enforce its rights under this Assignment . The rights of Lender under this Assignment shall be separate, distinct and cumulative and none shall be given effect to the exclusion of the others. No act of Lender shall be construed as an election to proceed under any one provision herein to the exclusion of any other provision.

Section 5.6 Terminationof Assignment . Upon paymentand performanceinfull of the Obligations, this Assignment shall become and be void and of no effect.

7.02 Assignment by Operator. Operator, in its sole discretion, shall have the right to assign this Agreement to any Affiliate of Operator or to any successor or assignee of Operator resulting from any merger, consolidation or reorganization, or to another corporation which shall acquire all or substantially all of the business and assets of Operator. Operator will give prompt notice to Owner of any such assignment . Operator may, with the consent of Owner not to be unreasonable delayed or withheld, assign this Agreement to any non- Affiliate. Except in the case of an assignment to an Affiliate of Operator, Operator shall be released of all of its covenants and liabilities hereunder, other than liabilities that have accrued prior to the date of the delivery of notice to Owner.

The names of all Grantors (sometimes "Grantor") can be found on page 1 of this Assignment . The names of all Grantees (sometimes "Lender") can be found on page 1 of this Assignment . The property address can be found on page 1 of this Assignment . The legal description can be found on page 1 of this Assignment .The parcel identification number can be found on page 1 of this Assignment .

BORROWER'S WAIVERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES. Lender need not tell Borrower about any action or inaction Lender takes in connection with this Assignment . Borrower assumes the responsibility for being and keeping informed about the Property.Borrower waives any defenses that may arise because of any action or inaction of Lender, including without limitation any failure of Lender to realize upon the Property, or any delay by Lender in realizing upon the Property. Borrower agrees to remain liable under the Note with Lender no matter what action Lender takes or fails to take under this Assignment .

PAYMENT AND PERFORMANCE. Except as otherwise provided in this Assignment or any Related Documents, Grantor shall pay to Lender all amounts secured by this Assignment as they become due, and shall strictly perform all of Grantor's obligations under this Assignment . Unless and until Lender exercises its right to collect the Rents as provided below and so long as there is no default under this Assignment , Grantor may remain in possession and control of and operate and manage the Property and collect the Rents, provided that the granting of the right to collect the Rents shall not constitute Lender's consent to the use of cash collateral in a bankruptcy proceeding.

No Prior Assignment . Grantor has not previously assigned or conveyed the Rents to any other person by any instrument now in force.

Amendments. This Assignment , together with any RelatedDocuments, constitutes the entire understanding and agreement of the parties as to the matters set forth in this Assignment . No alteration of or amendment to this Assignment shall be effective unless given in writing and signed by the party or parties sought to be charged or bound by the alteration or amendment.

Joint and Several Liability. All obligations of Borrower and Grantor under this Assignment shall be joint and several, and all references to Grantor shall mean each and every Grantor, andall references to Borrower shall mean each and every Borrower. This means that each Grantor signing below is responsible for all obligations in this Assignment .Where any one or more of the parties is a corporation, partnership, limited liability company or similar entity, it is not necessary for Lender to inquire into the powers of any of the officers, directors, partners, members, or other agents acting or purporting to act on the entity's behalf, and any obligations made or created in reliance upon the professed exercise of such powers shall be guaranteed under this Assignment .

No Waiver by Lender. Lender shall not be deemed to have waived any rights under this Assignment unless such waiver is given in writing and signed by Lender. No delay or omission on the part of Lender in exercising any right shall operate as a waiver of such right or any other right. A waiver by Lender of a provision of this Assignment shall not prejudice or constitute a waiver of Lender's right otherwise to demand strict compliance with that provision or any other provision of this Assignment . No prior waiver by Lender, nor any course of dealing between Lender and Grantor, shall constitute a waiver of any of Lender's rights or of any of Grantor's obligations as to any future transactions. Whenever the consent of Lender is required under this Assignment , the granting of such consent by Lender in any instance shall not constitute continuing consent to subsequent instances where such consent is required and in all cases such consent may be granted or withheld in the sole discretion of Lender.

Notices. Any notice required to be given under this Assignment shall be given in writing, and shall be effective when actually delivered, when actually received by telefacsimile (unless otherwise required by law), when deposited with a nationally recognized overnight courier, or, if mailed, when deposited in the United States mail, as first class, certified or registered mail postage prepaid, directed to the addresses shown near the beginning of this Assignment . Any party may change its address for notices under this Assignment by giving formal written notice to the other parties, specifying that the purpose of the notice is to change the party's address. For notice purposes, Grantor agrees to keep Lender informed at all times of Grantor's current address. Unless otherwise provided or required by law, if there is more than one Grantor, any notice given by Lender to any Grantor is deemed to be notice given to all Grantors.

Severability. If a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of this Assignment to be illegal, invalid, or unenforceable as to any circumstance, that finding shall not make the offending provision illegal, invalid, or unenforceable as to any other circumstance. If feasible, the offending provision shall be considered modified so that it becomes legal, valid and enforceable. If the offending provision cannot be so modified, it shall be considered deleted from this Assignment . Unless otherwise required by law, the illegality, invalidity, or unenforceability of any provision of this Assignment shall not affect the legality, validity or enforceability of any other provision of this Assignment .

Assignment . The word " Assignment " means this ASSIGNMENT OF RENTS, as this ASSIGNMENT OF RENTS may be amended or modified from time to time, together with all exhibits and schedules attached to this ASSIGNMENT OF RENTS from time to time.

Indebtedness. The word "Indebtedness" means all principal, interest and late fees, and other amounts, costs and expenses payable under the Note or Related Documents, together with all renewals of, extensions of, modifications of, consolidations of and substitutions for the Note or Related Documents and any amounts expended or advanced by Lender to discharge Grantor's obligations or expenses incurred by Lender to enforce Grantor's obligations under this Assignment , together with interest on such amounts as provided in this Assignment . Specifically,without limitation, Indebtedness includes the future advances set forth in the Future Advances provision of this Assignment , together with all interest thereon.

SECTION 14.7. Assignment . This Agreement may not be assigned by Buyer without the prior written consent of Seller, other than to Affiliates of Buyer. Buyer may designate an Affiliate to which the Agreement will be assigned at the Closing, provided that Buyer provides Seller with a draft assignment for this Agreement at least five (5) days prior to Closing and provided that Buyer will continue to remain liable under this Agreement notwithstanding any such designation. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, including, without limitation, Section 9.1(a), in the event Buyer assigns its rights under this Agreement, Buyer shall be solely responsible for any additional transfer taxes assessed as a result thereof, and shall pay such additional taxes at settlement and recording of the Deed. Seller shall have no liability for any realty transfer taxes, interest and penalties assessed based on any consideration greater than the Purchase Price set forth herein, and Buyer shall indemnify, defend and hold Seller harmless from any costs, liability or expense incurred by Seller in connection with an assignment of this Agreement by Buyer, including, without limitation, any transfer taxes and legal fees incurred by Seller in connection therewith.

Rights of Lender.Upon the occurrence and during the continuance of an Event of Default, Lender may, at any time without notice (except if required by any Applicable Law), either in person, by agent or by a court-appointed receiver (with such receiver to have all powers and duties set forth for receivers in this Deed of Trust and as prescribed by Applicable Law), regardless of the adequacy of Lender’s security, and at Lender’s sole election (without any obligation to do so), to the extent permitted by Applicable Law, enter upon and take possession and control of the Trust Estate to perform all acts necessary and appropriate to operate and maintain the Trust Estate, including to execute, cancel or modify the Leases, make repairs to the Trust Estate, execute or terminate contracts providing for the management or maintenance of the Trust Estate, all on such terms as are deemed best to protect the security of this assignment .Lender or the receiver, to the extent permitted by Applicable Law, shall have access to the books and records used in the operation and maintenance of the Trust Estate and shall be liable to account only for those Rents actually received.Lender shall not be liable to Trustor, anyone claiming under or through Trustor or anyone having an interest in the Trust Estate by reason of anything done or left undone by Lender hereunder, except to the extent of Lender’s gross negligence or willful misconduct.Any entering upon and taking possession and control of the Trust Estate by Lender or the receiver and any application of Rents as provided herein shall not cure or waive any Default or invalidate any other right or remedy of Lender.

Section 15.1. Assignment by Owner.Owner shall not assign or transfer or permit the assignment or transfer of this Agreement or any of Owner's rights and obligations hereunder without the prior written consent of Manager, on the conditions that (i)Owner may assign this Agreement without Manager's consent to any Affiliate of Owner or to any successor or assign that may result from the merger, consolidation or reorganization of Owner or its Affiliate provided that any such assignee shall assume and agree in writing to be bound by all of the terms and subject to all of the conditions set forth in this Agreement, and (ii)Owner shall not be released from its obligations hereunder without Manager's prior written consent which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld.Owner shall deliver to Manager a copy of any instrument of assignment .No assignment by Owner shall be binding on Manager until written notice thereof is furnished Manager, together with a copy of the applicable assignment and assumption document and evidence of such assignee's compliance with the insurance obligation of Owner imposed by this Agreement.

16. Assignment . This Agreement may be assigned by the Advisor to an Affiliate with the approval of the Board. The Advisor may assign any rights to receive fees or other payments under this Agreement without obtaining the approval of the Board. This Agreement shall not be assigned by the Company without the consent of the Advisor, except in the case of an assignment by the Company to a corporation or other organization which is a successor to all of the assets, rights and obligations of the Company, in which case such successor organization shall be bound hereunder and by the terms of said assignment in the same manner as the Company are bound by this Agreement.

08/08/2019 (Lodging Fund REIT III, Inc.)

The names of all Grantors (sometimes “Grantor”) can be found on page1 of this Assignment . The names of all Grantees (sometimes “Lender”) can be found on page1 of this Assignment . The property address can be found on page1 of this Assignment . The legal description can be found on page1 of this Assignment . The parcel identification number can be found on page1 of this Assignment .

5. Assignment . Original Borrower hereby grants, transfers, sets over and assigns to the Assumptor, all of Original Borrower’s right, title and interest in and to the Assumed Loan Documents, and Noteholder hereby consents to such assignment ; provided that such consent shall not be deemed to release Original Borrower from any of its obligations except as expressly provided in this Assumption Agreement.

1. Assignment . Subject to the partial assignment and assumption of section 9.3(b)and 18.10 Asset Purchase Agreement pursuant to the Assignment and Assumption of Ninth Amendment to Asset Purchase Agreement (“9thAmendment”), Assignor assigns to Assignee all of Assignor’s remaining right, title, and interest in and to the Asset Purchase Agreement, as amended. For the avoidance of doubt, as of the Effective Date of this Assignment , section 9.3(b)and 18.10 of the Asset Purchase Agreement shall be the obligation of LODGING FUND REIT III OP, LP, a Delaware limited partnership as assigned by Assignor and assumed by LODGING FUND REIT III OP, LP pursuant to the 9thAmendment.

p. Assignment . Purchaser may assign its interest under this Agreement at any time upon notice to Seller; provided, however, that no such assignment shall release Purchaser from any of its duties or obligations hereunder except as otherwise approved in writing by Seller.

1. Assignment . Assignor assigns to Assignee all of Assignor’s right, title, and interest in and to the Hotel Purchase and Sale Agreement, as amended.

Apollonia’s principal asset at this time is the right to receive payments under the Assignment . There is the possibility that a buyer exists that would pay to acquire the right to receive those payments. Given the uncertainty that currently exists, it would be difficult to establish an appropriate price for such rights independently from a sale of St. Renatus.

02/12/2019 (ST RENATUS LLC)

As more fully explained in Note 5, St. Renatus, LLC was assigned the patent for a needle-free system that delivers dental anesthesia as a nasal spray by Apollonia, LLC, an unrelated company at the time of assignment . Subsequently, Apollonia, LLC became a company with common members but separate control, and it is now considered a related party ("Related Company") under generally accepted accounting principles, the determination of which is not related to determining common ownership as defined by the IRS.

(g) Assignment . Neither party may assign this Third Assignment Agreement, or any right or obligation hereunder, without the prior written consent of the other; provided, however, that either party may assign this Third Assignment Agreement to any of its Affiliates, or, subject to Section 3(c) regarding the assumption of payment obligations hereunder, to a purchaser of all or substantially all of its assets to which this Third Assignment Agreement relates (including an acquisition by merger or the purchase of equity interests in a party), in each case with prior written notice to the other party. This Third Assignment Agreement shall be binding on and inure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their respective permitted successors and assigns.

Assignment . Clay hereby transfers, grants, conveys, assigns, and relinquishes exclusively to Gill all of Clay's right, title, and interest in and to the Patents, the inventions claimed therein, and all accrued causes of action for damages for infringement thereof (the “ Assignment ”).

The Assignor waives any right it may have of first requiring the Security Agent to proceed against or enforce any other rights or security or claim payment from any person before claiming from the Assignor under this Assignment . This waiver applies irrespective of any law or any provision of this Assignment to the contrary.

09/27/2019 (Brooge Holdings Ltd)

1. Assignment . Subject to Bluerock (as defined in the Operating Agreement of Assignee) funding its share of the earnest money and loan assumption costs as provided in Section 5.8 of the Operating Agreement of Assignee, Assignor hereby assigns, transfers and conveys to Assignee all of its right, title and interest in, to and under (i) the Agreement; (ii) the earnest money previously deposited by Assignor; and (iii) to the extent assignable and without any representation or warranty whatsoever, including, but not limited to any representation or warranty as to the accuracy, contents or completeness thereof, all property condition and inspection reports relating to the Property and received by Assignor in connection with the investigation and acquisition of the Property pursuant to the Agreement and either prepared by third parties or provided by the Seller and all representations and warranties made to Assignor in connection therewith (collectively, together with the Agreement and the earnest money, the “Transferred Assets”). For purposes of clarification, the parties agree that Transferred Assets shall not include any proprietary or confidential information, internal analyses, attorney work product or attorney-client privileged documents.

08/09/2017 (Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc.)

Borrower hereby transfers, assigns and sets over to Lender, its successors and assigns, all right, title and interest of Borrower in and to the Management Agreement. Manager hereby consents to the foregoing assignment . The foregoing assignment is being made by Borrower to Lender as collateral security for the full payment and performance by Borrower of all of its obligations under the Loan Documents. Although it is the intention of the parties that the assignment hereunder is a present assignment , until the occurrence of any default or failure to perform or observe any obligation, condition, covenant, term, agreement or provision required to be performed or observed by Borrower or any other party under any of the Loan Documents beyond any applicable grace or cure period provided for therein (an “Event of Default”), Borrower may exercise all rights as owner of the Mortgaged Property under the Management Agreement, except as otherwise provided in this Assignment . The foregoing assignment shall remain in effect as long as the Mortgage Loan, or any part thereof, remains unpaid, but shall automatically terminate upon the release of the Security Instrument as a lien on the Mortgaged Property.

Borrower, Manager and Lender shall not refuse or reject delivery of any notice given in accordance with this Assignment . Each party is required to acknowledge, in writing, the receipt of any notice upon request by the other party.

Any controversy arising under or in relation to this Assignment shall be litigated exclusively in the Property Jurisdiction without regard to conflicts of laws principles. The state and federal courts and authorities with jurisdiction in the Property Jurisdiction shall have exclusive jurisdiction over all controversies which shall arise under or in relation to this Assignment . Borrower irrevocably consents to service, jurisdiction and venue of such courts for any such litigation and waives any other venue to which it might be entitled by virtue of domicile, habitual residence or otherwise.

The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this Assignment shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision of this Assignment , all of which shall remain in full force and effect. This Assignment contains the complete and entire agreement among the parties as to the matters covered, rights granted and the obligations assumed in this Assignment . This Assignment may not be amended or modified except by written agreement signed by the parties hereto.

(b)Any reference in this Assignment to an “Exhibit” or “Schedule” or a “Section” or an “Article” shall, unless otherwise explicitly provided, be construed as referring, respectively, to an exhibit or schedule attached to this Assignment or to a Section or Article of this Assignment . All exhibits and schedules attached to or referred to in this Assignment , if any, are incorporated by reference into this Assignment .

18. Assignment . Assignee shall not have the right to assign this Assignment Agreement or any interest therein without Assignor’s prior written consent, which consent may be given or withheld in Assignor’s sole and absolute discretion; provided, however, that Assignee shall be permitted, without obtaining Assignor’s consent, to assign this Assignment Agreement to an entity which controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with Assignee or any other entity affiliated with Assignee. For purposes of this Agreement, an affiliate of Assignee shall include (a)any entity that is owned, controlled by or is under common control with Assignee (an “Assignee Control Entity”), (b)any entity in which one or more Assignee Controlled Entities directly or indirectly is the general partner (or similar managing partner, member or manager) or owns more than 50% of the economic interests of such entity, or (c)any entity (or subsidiary thereof) that is advised by an affiliate of BCIIV Advisors LLC. Assignee shall in no event be released from any of its obligations or liabilities hereunder as a result of any such assignment .

04/18/2018 (BLACK CREEK INDUSTRIAL REIT IV Inc.)

(b) Bill of Sale and General Assignment . Seller shall deliver two duly executed originals of a bill of sale and general assignment (and other instruments of conveyance, including, by way of example only, articles of transfer, as may be required to convey personal property), in the form attached hereto as ExhibitB (the “Bill of Sale”), conveying good and marketable title to such Personal Property, Permits, Plans and Records and Intangible Property to Buyer, free and clear of all Liens caused by Seller or based on the acts or agreements of Seller but subject to the Permitted Exceptions or those expressly permitted by this Agreement.

(b) Bill of Sale and General Assignment . Buyer shall deliver two duly executed counterparts of the Bill of Sale.

15.16 Assignment . Buyer may assign all or any portion of this Agreement or its rights hereunder, or delegate all or any portion of its duties or obligations to an affiliate without Seller’s written consent, provided that Buyer gives Seller notice of the assignment or delegation and that such assignment or delegation does not relieve Buyer of its obligations hereunder. Seller shall not assign this Agreement or any rights hereunder, or delegate any of its obligations, without the prior written approval of Buyer. Subject to the provisions of this section, this Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties and their respective heirs, personal representatives, successors and permitted assigns. Except as specifically set forth or referred to herein, nothing herein expressed or implied is intended or shall be construed to confer upon or give to any person or entity, other than the parties hereto and their successors or permitted assigns, any rights or remedies under or by reason of this Agreement. For purposes of this Section15.16, an affiliate of Buyer shall include (a)any entity that is owned, controlled by or is under common control with Buyer (a “Buyer Control Entity”), and (b)any entity in which one or more Buyer Controlled Entities directly or indirectly is the general partner (or similar managing partner, member or manager) or owns more than 50% of the economic interests of such entity, or (c)any entity (or subsidiary thereof) that is advised by an affiliate of Black Creek Industrial Acquisitions, LLC.

6.04 No Assignment . Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, this Deed of Trust shall not constitute an assignment of the Ground Lease within the meaning of any provision thereof prohibiting its assignment and Beneficiary shall have no liability or obligation thereunder by reason of its acceptance of this Deed of Trust. Beneficiary shall be liable for the obligations of the lessee arising out of the Ground Lease for only that period of time for which Beneficiary is in possession of the Leased Premises or has acquired, by foreclosure or otherwise, and is holding all of Trustor’s right, title and interest therein.

07/30/2019 (Desert Hawk Gold Corp.)

13.15 Assignment . Desert Hawk may not assign, sublease or otherwise transfer its interest in this Agreement without Clifton’s prior written consent (as to that portion of the Leased Premises owned by Clifton) and Woodman’s prior written consent (as to that portion of the Leased Premises owned by Woodman) in each instance, which consents shall not be unreasonably withheld. This paragraph shall not prevent Desert Hawk from, without Lessors’ consent, mortgaging or otherwise pledging this Agreement for financing purposes in accordance with Section 4.3(g) to the Leasehold Mortgagee. The Leasehold Mortgagee (and anyone whose title derives directly or indirectly from the Leasehold Mortgagee, including a purchaser at any foreclosure sale held under a leasehold mortgage) may, without Lessors’ consent, hold a foreclosure sale, take title to Desert Hawk’s interest under this Agreement, and transfer or assign Desert Hawk’s interest under this Agreement to an entity that has the financial capacity to perform Desert Hawk’s obligations under this Agreement, either in its own name or through a nominee; provided, however, that any transfer or assignment of this Agreement by any party that is not the Leasehold Mortgagee or an affiliate of the Leasehold Mortgagee shall be subject to the first sentence of this Section 13.15. No assignment , sublease or transfer shall be effective against Lessors until Lessors receive written notice of the transfer in accordance with Section 13.1.

2.1Representations and Warranties of Tate: 2.1.1Authorization. This Assignment and all other agreements contemplated by this Assignment , when executed and delivered by the parties thereto, shall constitute legal, valid, and binding obligations of Tate, enforceable against Tate in accordance with their terms, except as such enforceability may be limited by applicable bankruptcy, insolvency and similar laws affecting the rights of creditors generally or judicial limits on equitable remedies. 2.1.2No Adverse Consequences. The execution, delivery and performance of this Assignment by Tate will not: i) result in the creation of imposition of any lien, security interest, charge or encumbrance on the Assets; ii) violate any law, judgment, order, injunction, decree, rule, regulation or ruling of any governmental authority applicable to Tate; or iii) conflict with, constitute grounds for termination or acceleration of, result in the breach of the terms, conditions, or provisions of, result in the loss of any benefit to Tate under, or constitute a default under (whether by virtue of the application of a “change of control” provision or otherwise) any agreement, instrument, license or permit to which either Tate is a party or by which Tate is bound. 2.1.3Clear Title. Tate represents and warrants that Tate has good and marketable title to all of the Assets, in each case free and clear of all options, warrants, mortgages, liens, security interests, pledges, charges or encumbrances of any nature whatsoever other than as disclosed in this Assignment . 2.1.4Litigation. There are no actions, suits, proceedings, orders, investigations, or claims pending or, to Tate’s knowledge, threatened against the Assets, at law or in equity. 2.1.5Accuracy of Representations and Warranties. None of the representations and warranties of Tate contain any untrue statement of material fact or omit any material fact concerning the statements contained in this Agreement not misleading.

02/16/2017 (American Gas & Technology LP)

4.1Waiver. The failure of either party to comply with any obligation, covenant, agreement or condition in this Assignment may be waived in writing by the party entitled to the performance of such obligation, covenant or agreement or by the party who has the benefit of such condition, but such waiver or failure to insist on strict compliance with such obligation, covenant, agreement or condition shall not operate as a waiver of, or estoppel with respect to, any subsequent or other failure. 4.2Amendment. This Assignment may not be amended unless consented to in writing by the parties hereto. 4.3 Assignment . This Assignment may not be assigned by either party without the prior written consent of the other party hereto. 4.4Notice. Any notice or communication required or permitted to be given under this Assignment shall be given in writing and shall be considered to have been given if delivered by hand, transmitted by facsimile transmission or mailed by prepaid registered post in the United States, to the last known address of the other party. Either party may designate in writing at any time the latest address to which notice may be given to that party. 4.5Currency. Any references to currency in this Assignment or any attachment thereof are to be un U.S. Dollars unless otherwise stated. 4.6Time of the Essence. Time shall be of the essence of this Assignment . 4.7Invalidity. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this Assignment shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision and any such invalid or unenforceable provision shall be deemed to be severable. 4.8Entire Agreement. The provisions of this Assignment constitute the entire agreement between the parties and supersede all previous communications, representations and agreements, whether oral or written, between the parties with respect to the subject matter of this Assignment . 4.9Inurement. This Assignment shall inure to the benefit of and be binding upon the parties and, except as otherwise provided or as would be inconsistent with the provisions of this Assignment , their respective heirs, executors, administrators, successors and assigns.

4.10Independent Legal Advice. Each of the parties to this Assignment confirms and acknowledges that it has been provided with an opportunity to seek independent legal advice with respect to its rights, entitlements, liabilities and obligations hereunder and understands that it has been recommended that such advice be sought prior to entering into this Assignment . 4.11Counterparts. This Assignment may be executed in counterparts, each of which shall be deemed an original, but all of which together shall constitute one and the same instrument. In the event that this Assignment is signed by one party and faxed or emailed to another, the parties agree that a faxed or emailed signature shall be binding upon the parties as though the signature was an original. IN WITNESS WHEREOF this Assignment has been executed by the parties, and is effective as of the Effective Date.

a.His assignor has stated such intention in the instrument of assignment ; b.The assignee has executed an instrument reasonably satisfactory to the General Partner accepting and adopting the terms and provisions of this Agreement; and c.The assignor or assignee has paid any reasonable expense in connection with the admission of the assignee as a Partner. d.The General Partner affirms in writing the substitution. 11.4. a.Transferor - Transferee Allocations. As between a Partner and his transferee, profits and losses for any month shall be apportioned to the person who is the holder of the Limited Partnership Interest transferred on the last day of such month, without regard to the results of the Partnership's operations during the period before and after such transfer. b.Distributions and Allocations Subsequent to Transfer. A transferee of, or substitute Partner for, a Partner's Limited Partnership Interest shall be entitled to receive distributions from the Partnership with respect to such Limited Partnership Interest only after the effective date of such assignment . 11.5. Limited Partnership Interest Transferred to the General Partners. If any General Partner should acquire an Interest as a Limited Partner, including but not limited to an acquisition by purchase pursuant to Section 7.13 hereof, such General Partner shall, with respect to such Interest, enjoy all of the rights and be subject to all of the obligations and duties of a Limited Partner to the extent of such Interest.

This global assignment is subject to the business requirements of LS&Co. and your performance during the period of the assignment . Throughout the entire period of this assignment , you agree that you will not engage, directly or indirectly, either on your own or through the agency of another person, firm or corporation, in any other employment, profession, occupation, service or business whatsoever. Violation of this provision may result in the termination of your employment.

12/06/2018 (LEVI STRAUSS & CO)

• Tax Preparation Services provided through a designated vendor during your assignment and the year following the end of your assignment . Currently, Ernst& Young provides tax services to LS&Co.’s global assignees.

• Tax Equalization is provided to ensure that you realize neither a significant tax detriment nor a benefit as a result of the assignment . LS&Co. has contracted with Ernst& Young to prepare your home and host country tax returns, to administer the tax equalization program, and to provide tax orientation to you before your departure on assignment .

• Income you receive during your global assignment is taxable under the laws of your host county and the US. In order to avoid a double taxation burden, LS&Co. pays the taxes assessed on host country income. In addition, LS&Co. pays the tax assessed on certain allowances you receive while in your host country which represents payments you would not receive but for your global assignment . You remain fully responsible for the tax liability for all taxable income earned in a given year that represents your base salary, any incentive payments, tax on personal investments, and any other income not specifically related to your global assignment . This tax liability is referred to as Stay at Home Tax.

The Company, through Ernst& Young (“EY”), provides and directly pays for tax consultation and tax preparation services while you are on assignment . The consultation includes a required pre- assignment tax consultation to review the tax implications of your international assignment and the Company’s Tax Equalization Policy. The tax consultation can take place in your current country or in your host country as soon as practical upon arrival.

11.3Sharing of Profits on Subletting and Assignment . If Lessee sublets any portion of the Premises or assigns this lease (except as permitted in either case by paragraph 11.2), Lessor and Lessee shall share the net profits, if any, calculated as follows. “Net profits” on subleases shall be deter-mined annually on an aggregate basis for all subleases of the Premises (except those permitted by paragraph 11.2) in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Net profits on an assignment (except as permitted by paragraph 11.2) shall be determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Lessee shall pay Lessor 25% of the net profits so determined (i)on subletting, either monthly or annually at the option of Lessee, and (ii)on an assignment , as received by Lessee. If Lessee pays such share monthly, the amount thereof shall be subject to annual adjustment. Nothing herein contained shall abrogate the requirement of Lessor’s consent to an assignment of this lease or any interest therein or subletting of the whole or any part of the Premises as set forth in paragraph 11.1.

10.3 Governance Meetings. Supplier shall implement a governance structure and governance procedures as specified in Exhibit 5. Supplier shall attend governance meetings as specified in Exhibit 5. LS&Co. may replace or reassign its governance committee members upon notice to Supplier. Supplier shall not replace or reassign its governance committee members unless LS&Co. consents to such replacement or re assignment . Before assigning an individual to a governance committee, Supplier shall notify LS&Co. of the proposed assignment , introduce the individual to appropriate LS&Co. personnel, provide LS&Co. with any information regarding the individual that may be reasonably requested by LS&Co., and obtain LS&Co.’s approval for such assignment .

pursuant to a Change in Control of LS&Co., a reorganization of LS&Co., or a transfer or sale of any business unit, line of business, product line, or substantial portion of its assets, without such consent. Upon LS&Co.’s assignment of this Agreement, LS&Co. shall be released from any obligation or liability under this Agreement. The consent of a Party to any assignment of this Agreement shall not constitute such Party’s consent to further assignment . This Agreement shall be binding on the Parties and their respective successors and permitted assigns. Any assignment in contravention of this Section29.1 shall be void.

• LS&Co. reserves the right to interview/screen tech leads in each discipline prior to assignment . It is expected that tech leads will then sign off on remaining/additional resources to ensure they meet expected standards.

Following the completion of the Split-Off, Splitco will be entitled to vote the Expedia Common Shares subject to the Diller Proxy (representing 52.4% of the outstanding voting power of the Expedia Common Shares) as a result of the assignment of the Diller Proxy to Splitco until the Proxy Arrangement Termination Date pursuant to the Diller Assignment . Following the assignment of the Diller Proxy to Splitco, based on publicly available information, other than the Expedia Common Shares that are subject to the terms of the Diller Proxy and the Diller Assignment of which Diller and Splitco will continue to share beneficial ownership, Diller is expected to beneficially own approximately 5,777,586 shares of EXPE (based upon Expedia's Annual Report on Form10-K/A (Amendment No.1) for the fiscal year ended December31, 2015, filed with the SEC on April29, 2016), representing approximately 2.2% of the outstanding voting power of the Expedia Common Shares. Following the completion of the Split-Off, the voting of the Expedia Common Shares beneficially owned by Diller which Diller will be entitled to vote will be subject to certain terms contained in the Stockholders Agreement Amendment and the voting of the Expedia Common Shares beneficially owned by Splitco which Splitco will be entitled to vote, and as to which Splitco and Diller will continue to share beneficial ownership, will be subject to certain terms contained in Splitco's restated charter, its bylaws, the Stockholders Agreement Amendment, the Diller Assignment and the Transaction Agreement. The below table sets forth a summary of the voting arrangements following the completion of the Split-Off until the Proxy Arrangement Termination Date with respect to the Expedia Common Shares of which Diller and Splitco will share beneficial ownership. The Expedia Common Shares subject to the terms of the Diller Proxy and the Diller Assignment are referred to in the chart as Splitco's Expedia Common Shares and the remaining Expedia Common Shares of which Diller and Splitco share beneficial ownership are referred to in the chart as Diller's Expedia Common Shares.

09/23/2016 (Liberty Expedia Holdings, Inc.)

7.5 Binding Effect; Assignment . This Agreement and all of the provisions hereof shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their respective successors and permitted assigns. Except with respect to a merger of a party, neither this Agreement nor any of the rights, interests or obligations hereunder shall be assigned by any party hereto without the prior written consent of the other parties; provided, however, that LIC and Splitco may assign their respective rights, interests, duties, liabilities and obligations under this Agreement to any of their respective wholly-owned Subsidiaries, but such assignment shall not relieve LIC or Splitco, as the assignor, of its obligations hereunder.

8.8 Binding Effect; Assignment . This Agreement and all of the provisions hereof shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their respective successors and permitted assigns. Except with respect to a merger of a party, neither this Agreement nor any of the rights, interests or obligations hereunder shall be assigned by any party hereto without the prior written consent of the other party; provided, however, that each of Distributing and Splitco may assign its respective rights, interests, duties, liabilities and obligations under this Agreement to any other member of their Group, but such assignment shall not relieve Distributing or Splitco, as the assignor, of its liabilities or obligations hereunder.

12. Liberty Consent. To the extent this Agreement or the Diller Assignment constitutes a prohibited assignment of the Liberty Proxy pursuant to Section3.3(d)of the Stockholders Agreement, Liberty hereby consents to the assignment of the Liberty Proxy upon the execution of and pursuant to the terms of this Agreement and the Diller Assignment . For the avoidance of doubt, the foregoing consent does not affect any other provision of the Stockholders Agreement, which shall continue in full force and effect.

6.7Binding Effect; Assignment . This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the Parties and their respective heirs, successors and permitted assigns. Nothing in this Agreement shall create or be deemed to create any third party beneficiary rights in any person or entity not a Party to this Agreement. No assignment of this Agreement or of any rights or obligations hereunder may be made by any Party hereto (by operation of law or otherwise) without the prior written consent of the other Party and any attempted assignment without the required consent shall be void; provided that prior to the Closing, the Purchaser may assign its rights and obligations hereunder to its Affiliates without the prior written consent of the Seller.

10/28/2020 (China Biologic Products Holdings, Inc.)

2. Assignment . Subject to and with effect from the SPA Closing, the Assignor hereby absolutely and irrevocably assigns all the rights, obligations and covenants of the Assignor with respect to and in connection with the Sale Shares under the IRA (as amended by this Assignment ) to the Assignee, and the Assignee hereby accepts the foregoing assignment and fully assumes the rights, obligations and covenants of the Assignor with respect to and in connection with the Sale Shares under the IRA (as amended by this Assignment ). The assignment of the IRA pursuant to the foregoing sentence of this Section 2 is referred to as the “IRA Assignment .” The Company hereby consents to the IRA Assignment pursuant to Section 8.5 (Successors and Assigns) of the IRA.

7.Binding Effect; Assignment . This Assignment shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties and their respective heirs, successors and permitted assigns. Nothing in this Assignment shall create or be deemed to create any third party beneficiary rights in any person or entity not a party to this Assignment . No assignment of this Assignment or of any rights or obligations hereunder may be made by any party hereto (by operation of law or otherwise) without the prior written consent of the other party (which consent, in each case, shall not be unreasonably withheld, delayed or conditioned) and any attempted assignment without the required consent shall be void.

(b)Acknowledgment of the PWM IRA Assignment . The Parties acknowledge and agree that with effect from the effective date of the latest PWM IRA Assignment (the “Effective Time”), the PWM IRA shall be of no further force and effect with respect to PWM, and PWM shall have no further liability or obligation with respect thereto or any of the transactions contemplated thereby.

8.Amendment; Assignment . This Agreement may not be amended, modified or supplemented in any manner, whether by course of conduct or otherwise, except by an instrument in writing specifically designated as an amendment hereto, signed on behalf of each of the Parties. No Party may assign either this Agreement or any of its rights, interests, or obligations hereunder without the prior written approval of the other Party. Subject to the preceding sentence, this Agreement shall be binding upon and shall inure to the benefit of the Parties and their respective successors and permitted assigns.

11.6 Binding Effect and Assignment . This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the Parties and their respective permitted successors and assigns. Nothing in this Agreement, express or implied, is intended to confer upon any Person other than the Parties and their respective permitted successors and assigns, any rights, benefits or obligations hereunder, except as set forth in ARTICLE IX and Section11.1. No Party hereto may assign, transfer, dispose of or otherwise alienate this Agreement or any of its rights, interests or obligations under this Agreement (whether by operation of Law or otherwise) except that each of the Company and the Remora Holdings may transfer their respective rights and obligations hereunder to any Affiliate. Any attempted assignment , transfer, disposition or alienation in violation of this Agreement shall be null, void and ineffective.

08/30/2018 (Remora Royalties, Inc.)

(a) The division of this Assignment into articles, sections and other portions and the insertion of headings are for convenience of reference only and shall not affect the construction or interpretation hereof. Unless otherwise indicated, all references to an “Article” or “Section” followed by a number or a letter refer to the specified Article or Section of this Assignment . Unless otherwise indicated, all references to an “Exhibit” followed by a number or a letter refer to the specified Exhibit to this Assignment . The terms “this Assignment ,” “hereof,” “herein” and “hereunder” and similar expressions refer to this Assignment , including the exhibits and schedules hereto, and not to any particular Article, Section or other portion hereof. The words “shall” and “will” are used interchangeably throughout this Assignment and shall accordingly be given the same meaning, regardless of which word is used.

(c) The Parties have participated jointly in the negotiation and drafting of this Assignment . No provision of this Assignment will be interpreted in favor of, or against, any of the Parties by reason of the extent to which any such Party or its counsel participated in the drafting thereof or by reason of the extent to which any such provision is inconsistent with any prior draft of this Assignment , and no rule of strict construction will be applied against any Party hereto. This Assignment will not be interpreted or construed to require any person to take any action, or fail to take any action, if to do so would violate any applicable Law.

SECTION 5.03 Assignment . This Assignment shall inure to the benefit of and be binding on the Parties and their respective heirs, legal representatives, successors and assigns.

10. Assignment . This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of and be enforceable by the parties hereto and their respective successors and assigns. In addition, and regardless of whether any express assignment shall have been made, the provisions of this Agreement which are for the benefit of the parties hereto other than the Company shall also be for the benefit of and enforceable by any subsequent holder of any Registrable Securities, subject to the provisions respecting the minimum numbers or percentages of Registrable Securities required in order to be entitled to certain rights, or take certain actions, contained herein.

(iv) Assignment and Assumption. The parties to each assignment shall execute and deliver an Assignment and Assumption, and the assignee(s) and/or assignor(s) party thereto shall deliver a processing and recordation fee of $3,500, in each case to Administrative Agent; provided that Administrative Agent may, in its discretion, elect to waive such processing and recordation fee in the case of any assignment . The assignee, if it is not a Lender, shall deliver to Administrative Agent an Administrative Questionnaire.

Congratulations on your assignment . Global Mobility is an important part of Teva’s growth, globalization,and talent initiatives. We believe that international assignment s help Teva achieve worldwide business targets while simultaneously developing employee’s capabilities and international business experience. We hope that you will benefit both personally and professionally from your experience. This letter summarizes the general terms and conditions of your assignment with Teva.

02/12/2018 (TEVA PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES LTD)

* Your actual effective date of assignment will be determined following receipt of your authorization to work and reside in the Host country. This letter does not create a contract of employment, but simply seeks to confirm the conditions which pertain to your temporary international assignment . Should the nature of your position change or if this assignment extends beyond its initial duration the terms may be subject to change at that time. Teva reserves the right to modify the global assignment policies and procedures at any time in whole or in part, with or without notice.

Teva does not compensate for the loss of spousal/partner income as a result of the assignment , but rather recognizes that the financial impact exists. To ease the transition, Teva reimburses for job placement and related services if your spouse accompanies you full time on assignment . The maximum reimbursement is equivalent to 2000 USD. Reimbursement must be claimed within 12 months of the effective date of your assignment and Teva is responsible for any applicable taxes. Reimbursement will be processed by Teva’s dedicated relocation provider.

You will be provided one home leave every 12 months on assignment between your home country and your host country for you and your spouse. Teva covers round trip airfare, based on economy fare booked at least 30 days in advance and via the most direct route. Any ground transportation and/or lodging costs are your responsibility. You must use your vacation time for your home leave visits. To allow for unmarried dependent children enrolled in university outside the host location to visit you in the host location, the Company reimburses one round trip, economy airfare per child per the full duration of the assignment . Travel must be booked at least 30 days in advance via the most direct route.

In the event Teva, in its sole discretion, ends your international assignment before its scheduled end date, Teva will provide return trip airfare for you and your spouse back to the point of origin, and will ship household goods back to the point of origin or to some other mutually agreed upon location. Unless otherwise agreed to by regional management and Human Resources, the return must be completed within 60 days after the effective date of the termination of the international assignment . By failing to relocate within 60 days, you forfeit Teva’s offer to pay for repatriation transportation costs.

17. Assignment . This Agreement may be assigned, without the consent of the Executive, by Teva USA to any person, partnership, corporation or other entity that has purchased all or substantially all the assets of Teva USA; provided, that such assignee assumes any and all of the obligations of the Company hereunder. The Company shall cause any person, firm or corporation acquiring all or substantially all of the assets of Teva USA to execute a written instrument agreeing to assume any and all of the obligations of the Company hereunder as a condition to acquiring such assets.

19. No Assignment . The Parties agree that they have not, and will not, sell, transfer or assign, or purport to sell, transfer or assign, any Claim or interest in any claim that is the subject of the releases in this Agreement.

(d)Dispute Resolution. Except with respect to claims for breach of the obligations under Section 2 of this Agreement, for which the Company may seek enforcement in any court having competent jurisdiction at its election, any dispute arising between the Company and Employee with respect to the validity, performance or interpretation of this Agreement shall be submitted to and determined in binding arbitration in Hartford, Connecticut, for resolution in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association, modified to provide that the decision of the arbitrator shall be binding on the parties; shall be furnished in writing, separately and specifically stating the findings of fact and conclusions of law on which the decision is based; shall be kept confidential by the arbitrator and the parties; and shall be rendered within sixty (60) days following the arbitrator being impaneled. Costs and expenses of the arbitration shall be borne by the Company regardless of the outcome. The arbitrator shall be selected in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association. (e) Assignment . Without the prior written consent of Employee, this Agreement shall not be assignable by the Company. This Agreement shall inure to the benefit of and be enforceable by Employee’s heirs and legal representatives. This Agreement shall inure to the benefit of and be binding upon the Company and its successors and assigns.

02/07/2020 (Otis Worldwide Corp)

The terms and conditions of your employment, other than as set out in this letter, remain unchanged throughout the temporary assignment . During your temporary assignment your employment will remain with Huntsman P&A Americas LLC (The Home Company) and shall continue to be governed by Texas and U.S. law. This letter sets out the details of your temporary assignment to Huntsman P&A UK Ltd (The Host Company) which continues until you are no longer employed with The Home Company or this temporary assignment ends.

07/14/2017 (Venator Materials PLC)

Although you will be working with The Host Company, your contract of employment with The Home Company will continue in existence during your assignment , except as herein provided. In particular, the provision regarding termination of employment will remain in full force and operation throughout the period of your assignment . However, notwithstanding anything contained herein to the contrary, the terms of Huntsman Corporation’s Executive Severance Plan (as attached) will apply to any termination of your employment. The following terms shall be in operation throughout the duration of your assignment .

As an equity participant, the taxation basis for your equity may change as a result of your assignment . Please consult with your Stock Partner for further information.

The Company-designated accounting firm will prepare your Home Country income tax return(s)for the duration of this assignment , and any subsequent years that are impacted by this assignment . Citizens or permanent residents must file a tax return each year, even when living abroad.

At the end of your assignment , the Company will assist with transferring your personal effects back to a location of your choice in your Home Country or on to a consecutive international assignment . The same limitations apply for repatriation of your HHG.

(f) Assignment . Neither this Agreement nor any of the rights or obligations hereunder may be assigned by the Company without the prior written consent of BBH; provided, however, that BBH may assign or transfer its duties or interests hereunder to any of its affiliates at the sole discretion of BBH and may otherwise assign, on a “shared basis”, its rights under Section4 to any affiliated private equity fund to the extent necessary to maintain venture capital operating company status. Subject to the foregoing, the provisions of this Agreement will be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their respective successors and assigns. Subject to the next sentence, no person or party other than the parties hereto and their respective successors or permitted assigns is intended to be a beneficiary of this Agreement. The parties acknowledge and agree that BBH and its affiliates and their respective partners (both general and limited), members (both managing and otherwise), officers, directors, employees, agents and representatives as well as any assignees pursuant to this Section7(f) are intended to be third-party beneficiaries under Sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 hereof, as applicable.

01/15/2021 (Bumble Inc.)

(h) Assignment . This Agreement, and all of Executive’s rights and duties hereunder, shall not be assignable or delegable by Executive. Any purported assignment or delegation by Executive in violation of the foregoing shall be null and void ab initio and of no force and effect. This Agreement shall be assigned by the Company to a person or entity which is a successor in interest (“Successor”) to all or substantially all of the then-business operations of the Company; provided, that such Successor undertakes to be bound by the terms hereunder. Upon such assignment , the rights and obligations of the Company hereunder shall become the rights and obligations of such Successor.

SECTION1. Assignment . Assignor hereby sells, assigns, transfers, conveys, and delivers to Assignee all of Assignor’s worldwide right, title, and interest in, to, and under the trademark MAKE THE FIRST MOVE, the Application, any other worldwide registrations and applications for such trademark, and the goodwill of the business embodied therein and symbolized thereto, and all common-law rights related thereto (collectively, the “Mark”), free and clear of any liens or encumbrances of any kind, together with the right to bring an action or proceeding at law or in equity for any infringement, dilution or violation of the foregoing prior to the Effective Date, and the right to retain all monies, proceeds and damages therefrom.

SECTION3. Further Assurances. Each Party will, upon the other Party’s reasonable request, without further consideration but at the requesting Party’s expense, provide or execute all other documents and take all further actions as may be necessary to effectuate the purpose of this Assignment . Without limiting the foregoing, at Assignee’s request and expense, Assignor shall execute a short-form assignment to record the assignment herein at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

5. Assignment . Neither Maker nor Holders may assign any of its rights or obligations under this Note except with the prior written consent of the other. Subject to the first sentence of this Section 5, this Note is binding upon and shall inure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their respective successors, heirs, legal representatives, and permitted assigns.

05/01/2019 (Golden Developing Solutions, Inc.)

1. Assignment . In accordance with the terms and conditions of the Purchase Agreement, for good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, Seller does hereby sell, transfer, convey, assign and deliver unto Purchaser, its successors and assigns, all of the Assets, as such term is defined in the Purchase Agreement, including, without limitation, all of the assets set forth on Schedule 1 attached hereto, free and clear of any and all options, liens, security interests, encumbrances, mortgages, deeds of trust, liabilities, financing statements, pledges, charges, conditions, equitable claims, covenants, title defects, restrictions or claims of any kind, nature or description whatsoever (collectively, “Liens”), to have and to hold said Assets unto Purchaser, its successors and assigns, to and for its and/or their use forever.

6.Independent Covenants. This Assignment is subject in all respects to the terms and conditions of the Purchase Agreement. Nothing contained in this Assignment shall be deemed to diminish any of the obligations, agreements, covenants, representations or warranties of the parties contained in the Purchase Agreement. 7.Counterparts. This Assignment may be executed in counterparts, each of which shall be deemed an original, and all of which when affixed together shall constitute but one and the same instrument. Manual signatures exchanged electronically by facsimile or email shall be deemed original signatures for all purposes. 8.Recitals. The recitals above are incorporated by reference into this Assignment . 9.Amendment and Governing Law. This Assignment shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the state of Colorado (without regards to the conflict of law principles thereof). No change in or amendment to this Assignment shall be valid unless set forth in a writing signed by both parties to this Assignment . THE PARTIES ACKNOWLEDGE THAT (A) COLORADO HAS PASSED AMENDMENTS TO THE COLORADO CONSTITUTION AND ENACTED CERTAIN LEGISLATION TO GOVERN THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY AND (B) THE POSSESSION, SALE, MANUFACTURE, AND CULTIVATION OF CANNABIS IS ILLEGAL UNDER FEDERAL LAW. THE PARTIES WAIVE ANY DEFENSES BASED UPON INVALIDITY OF CONTRACTS FOR PUBLIC POLICY REASONS AND/OR THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONTRACT VIOLATING FEDERAL LAW.

1. Assignment and Assumption. Seller hereby assigns the Material Contracts to Purchaser, and Purchaser hereby assumes and agrees to perform or otherwise carry out all of Seller’s obligations with respect to the Material Contracts. Seller agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Purchaser from any liability accruing from such Material Contracts before the date of this Assignment and Purchaser agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Seller from any liability accruing from such Material Contracts following the date of this Assignment . Notwithstanding the foregoing, Purchaser shall not assume, or become liable to pay, perform or discharge any liability for any Material Contract (unless Purchaser affirmatively elects otherwise in writing): (i) where Seller is in default prior to the date of this Assignment ; (ii) where the consent or approval of any person is required for Seller to assign or Purchaser to assume such Material Contract and such consent or approval is not obtained or waived in writing by Purchaser before the date of this Assignment ; or (iii) where any notice to any person is required for Seller to assign or Purchaser to assume such Material Contract and such notice is not provided to such person or waived in writing by Purchaser before the date hereof.

9. Amendment and Governing Law. This Assignment shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the state of Colorado (without regards to the conflict of law principles thereof). No change in or amendment to this Assignment shall be valid unless set forth in a writing signed by both parties to this Assignment . THE PARTIES ACKNOWLEDGE THAT (A) COLORADO HAS PASSED AMENDMENTS TO THE COLORADO CONSTITUTION AND ENACTED CERTAIN LEGISLATION TO GOVERN THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY AND (B) THE POSSESSION, SALE, MANUFACTURE, AND CULTIVATION OF CANNABIS IS ILLEGAL UNDER FEDERAL LAW. THE PARTIES WAIVE ANY DEFENSES BASED UPON INVALIDITY OF CONTRACTS FOR PUBLIC POLICY REASONS AND/OR THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONTRACT VIOLATING FEDERAL LAW.

9 If to the Company: If to Executive: Tyler Bartholomew (c) Assignment . This Agreement will be binding upon the parties hereto and their respective successors, personal representatives, heirs and assigns. Neither Party may assign any of its rights or obligations under this Agreement except with the prior written consent of other Party.

(iv) Assignment and Assumption. The parties to each assignment shall execute and deliver to the Administrative Agent an Assignment and Assumption, together with a processing and recordation fee in the amount of $3,500; provided, however, that the Administrative Agent may, in its sole discretion, elect to waive such processing and recordation fee in the case of any assignment . The assignee, if it is not a Lender, shall deliver to the Administrative Agent an administrative questionnaire in form and substance reasonably satisfactory to the Administrative Agent.

05/02/2018 (AMERICAN TOWER CORP /MA/)

Subject to acceptance and recording thereof by the Administrative Agent pursuant to subsection (c)of this Section, from and after the effective date specified in each Assignment and Assumption, the assignee thereunder shall be a party to this Agreement and, to the extent of the interest assigned by such Assignment and Assumption, have the rights and obligations of a Lender under this Agreement, and the assigning Lender thereunder shall, to the extent of the interest assigned by such Assignment and Assumption, be released from its obligations under this Agreement (and, in the case of an Assignment and Assumption covering all of the assigning Lender’s rights and obligations under this Agreement, such Lender shall cease to be a party hereto) but shall continue to be entitled to the benefits of Sections 10.2, 10.3 and 10.5 with respect to facts and circumstances occurring prior to the effective date of such assignment . Upon request, the Borrower (at its expense) shall execute and deliver a Note to the assignee Lender. Any assignment or transfer by a Lender of rights or obligations under this Agreement that does not comply with this subsection shall be treated for purposes of this Agreement as a sale by such Lender of a participation in such rights and obligations in accordance with subsection (d)of this Section.

Subject to acceptance and recording thereof by the Administrative Agent pursuant to Section 22.3, from and after the effective date specified in each Assignment and Assumption, the Eligible Assignee thereunder shall be a party to this Agreement and, to the extent of the interest assigned by such Assignment and Assumption, have the rights and obligations of a Lender under this Agreement and the other Loan Documents, including any collateral security, and the assigning Lender thereunder shall, to the extent of the interest assigned by such Assignment and Assumption, be released from its obligations under this Agreement (and, in the case of an Assignment and Assumption covering all of the assigning Lender’s rights and obligations under this Agreement, such Lender shall cease to be a party hereto) but shall continue to be entitled to the benefits of ARTICLE 17 and ARTICLE 21, and shall continue to be liable for any breach of this Agreement by such Lender, with respect to facts and circumstances occurring prior to the effective date of such assignment . Any assignment or transfer by a Lender of rights or obligations under this Agreement that does not comply with this section shall be treated for purposes of this Agreement as a sale by such Lender of a participation in such rights and obligations in accordance with Section 22.4. Any payment by an assignee to an assigning Lender in connection with an assignment or transfer shall not be or be deemed to be a repayment by the Borrower or a new Loan to the Borrower.

02/26/2021 (GFL Environmental Inc.)

(iv) Assignment and Assumption. The parties to each assignment shall execute and deliver to the Administrative Agent an Assignment and Assumption, which shall include, inter alia, a representation by the assignee that it is an Eligible Assignee, any tax forms required by Section 3.01 (unless such assignee is already a Lender), together with a processing and recordation fee of $3,500; provided that the Administrative Agent may, in its sole discretion, elect to waive or reduce such processing and recordation fee in the case of any assignment . The Eligible Assignee, if it shall not be a Lender, shall deliver to the Administrative Agent an Administrative Questionnaire. All assignment s shall be by novation.

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Assignment of Contract

Jump to section, what is an assignment of contract.

An assignment of contract is a legal term that describes the process that occurs when the original party (assignor) transfers their rights and obligations under their contract to a third party (assignee). When an assignment of contract happens, the original party is relieved of their contractual duties, and their role is replaced by the approved incoming party.

How Does Assignment of Contract Work?

An assignment of contract is simpler than you might think.

The process starts with an existing contract party who wishes to transfer their contractual obligations to a new party.

When this occurs, the existing contract party must first confirm that an assignment of contract is permissible under the legally binding agreement . Some contracts prohibit assignments of contract altogether, and some require the other parties of the agreement to agree to the transfer. However, the general rule is that contracts are freely assignable unless there is an explicit provision that says otherwise.

In other cases, some contracts allow an assignment of contract without any formal notification to other contract parties. If this is the case, once the existing contract party decides to reassign his duties, he must create a “Letter of Assignment ” to notify any other contract signers of the change.

The Letter of Assignment must include details about who is to take over the contractual obligations of the exiting party and when the transfer will take place. If the assignment is valid, the assignor is not required to obtain the consent or signature of the other parties to the original contract for the valid assignment to take place.

Check out this article to learn more about how assigning a contract works.

Contract Assignment Examples

Contract assignments are great tools for contract parties to use when they wish to transfer their commitments to a third party. Here are some examples of contract assignments to help you better understand them:

Anna signs a contract with a local trash company that entitles her to have her trash picked up twice a week. A year later, the trash company transferred her contract to a new trash service provider. This contract assignment effectively makes Anna’s contract now with the new service provider.

Hasina enters a contract with a national phone company for cell phone service. The company goes into bankruptcy and needs to close its doors but decides to transfer all current contracts to another provider who agrees to honor the same rates and level of service. The contract assignment is completed, and Hasina now has a contract with the new phone company as a result.

Here is an article where you can find out more about contract assignments.

Assignment of Contract in Real Estate

Assignment of contract is also used in real estate to make money without going the well-known routes of buying and flipping houses. When real estate LLC investors use an assignment of contract, they can make money off properties without ever actually buying them by instead opting to transfer real estate contracts .

This process is called real estate wholesaling.

Real Estate Wholesaling

Real estate wholesaling consists of locating deals on houses that you don’t plan to buy but instead plan to enter a contract to reassign the house to another buyer and pocket the profit.

The process is simple: real estate wholesalers negotiate purchase contracts with sellers. Then, they present these contracts to buyers who pay them an assignment fee for transferring the contract.

This process works because a real estate purchase agreement does not come with the obligation to buy a property. Instead, it sets forth certain purchasing parameters that must be fulfilled by the buyer of the property. In a nutshell, whoever signs the purchase contract has the right to buy the property, but those rights can usually be transferred by means of an assignment of contract.

This means that as long as the buyer who’s involved in the assignment of contract agrees with the purchasing terms, they can legally take over the contract.

But how do real estate wholesalers find these properties?

It is easier than you might think. Here are a few examples of ways that wholesalers find cheap houses to turn a profit on:

• Direct mailers
• Place newspaper ads
• Make posts in online forums
• Social media posts

The key to finding the perfect home for an assignment of contract is to locate sellers that are looking to get rid of their properties quickly. This might be a family who is looking to relocate for a job opportunity or someone who needs to make repairs on a home but can’t afford it. Either way, the quicker the wholesaler can close the deal, the better.

Once a property is located, wholesalers immediately go to work getting the details ironed out about how the sale will work. Transparency is key when it comes to wholesaling. This means that when a wholesaler intends to use an assignment of contract to transfer the rights to another person, they are always upfront about during the preliminary phases of the sale.

In addition to this practice just being good business, it makes sure the process goes as smoothly as possible later down the line. Wholesalers are clear in their intent and make sure buyers know that the contract could be transferred to another buyer before the closing date arrives.

After their offer is accepted and warranties are determined, wholesalers move to complete a title search . Title searches ensure that sellers have the right to enter into a purchase agreement on the property. They do this by searching for any outstanding tax payments, liens , or other roadblocks that could prevent the sale from going through.

Wholesalers also often work with experienced real estate lawyers who ensure that all of the legal paperwork is forthcoming and will stand up in court. Lawyers can also assist in the contract negotiation process if needed but often don’t come in until the final stages.

If the title search comes back clear and the real estate lawyer gives the green light, the wholesaler will immediately move to locate an entity to transfer the rights to buy.

One of the most attractive advantages of real estate wholesaling is that very little money is needed to get started. The process of finding a seller, negotiating a price, and performing a title search is an extremely cheap process that almost anyone can do.

On the other hand, it is not always a positive experience. It can be hard for wholesalers to find sellers who will agree to sell their homes for less than the market value. Even when they do, there is always a chance that the transferred buyer will back out of the sale, which leaves wholesalers obligated to either purchase the property themselves or scramble to find a new person to complete an assignment of contract with.

Learn more about assignment of contract in real estate by checking out this article .

Who Handles Assignment of Contract?

The best person to handle an assignment of contract is an attorney. Since these are detailed legal documents that deal with thousands of dollars, it is never a bad idea to have a professional on your side. If you need help with an assignment of contract or signing a business contract , post a project on ContractsCounsel. There, you can connect with attorneys who know everything there is to know about assignment of contract amendment and can walk you through the whole process.

ContractsCounsel is not a law firm, and this post should not be considered and does not contain legal advice. To ensure the information and advice in this post are correct, sufficient, and appropriate for your situation, please consult a licensed attorney. Also, using or accessing ContractsCounsel's site does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and ContractsCounsel.

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Assignability Of Contracts: Everything You Need to Know

The assignability of contracts is when one side of a contract agreement transfers the contract to another entity, so that the new entity fulfills the terms of the contract. 3 min read updated on February 01, 2023

The assignability of contracts is when one side of a contract agreement transfers the contract to another entity, so that the new entity fulfills the terms of the contract. Being able to assign contracts depends on a variety of factors, mainly the language contained in the contract. 

How Contract Assignments Work

Some contracts prohibit assignment altogether, while others may allow it with the other party's consent. An example of a basic contract assignment may look like this: 

• Bob contracts with a dairy to deliver a gallon of cream to his house every day. 
• The dairy assigns Bob's contract to another dairy. 
• As long as Bob is notified of the change in provider and gets his gallon of cream every day, his contract is with the new dairy.

Because the law has a preference for the free alienation of property, parties are free to assign contract rights and delegate contractual obligations. 

Assigning a contract to another doesn't always take away the assigning party's liability. Some contracts include a clause that at least one of the original parties guarantees performance — or fulfills the contract terms — no matter what the assignment.

The performance, however, can't be changed in contract assignment. There's a limit to substitution, so the new party has no power to change the performance per the rights stated in the contract. For example, if the obliging party has pledged to perform only if some event happens (with no certainty that it will happen), no assignment should increase the risk to the obliging party if the event doesn't happen through no fault of the obligor.

The nature of a contract's obligations determines its assignability.

When Assignments Won't Be Enforced

In certain cases, contracts can't be assigned.

• A clause in the contract prohibits assignment. This is usually called an anti-assignment clause.
• Assignments can't take place if they materially alter what's expected under the contract. If the assignment affects the expected performance as outlined in the contract, lowers the value of returns (including anticipated returns), or increases risks for the other contract party (the one who's not assigning contractual rights), it's unlikely that any court will enforce the arrangement.
• If an assignment violates public policy or the law, it won't be enforced. For instance, the federal government prohibits certain claim assignments against the government, and many states prohibit an employee from assigning future wages.

Other assignments may not be illegal, but they could still violate public policy. As an example, personal injury claims can't be assigned because doing so might encourage litigation.

When looking into whether one party can transfer a contract or some rights and obligations in the contract, the transferring party has to check into applicable laws and statutes. That party must also check the contract's express language to determine whether or not it can transfer the assignment without obtaining consent from the non-transferring party.

If the contract requires that consent is given and the transferring party doesn't get that consent, it risks a contract breach as well as an invalid, ineffective transfer.

How to Assign a Contract

Follow these steps to assign contracts, when it's allowed for you to do so.

• Carefully study the contract for prohibitions or limitations, such as anti-assignment clauses. In some cases, there isn't a separate anti-assignment clause, but it may be stated in another way, such as language that says, "This contract may not be assigned."
• Execute the assignment. As long as you're free to assign the contract, prepare and enter into the assignment, which is basically an agreement transferring your rights and obligations.
• Notify the obligor, or the non-transferring party. After you assign contract rights to the assignee, notify the other party that was the original contractor, also known as the obligor. This notice relieves you of any liability as stated in the contract, as long as the contract doesn't say differently — for instance, the contract states that you, as the assignor, guarantee performance under the contract. 

Before trying to assign a contract to a third party, it's very important to understand if you're allowed to do so. You'll have to research legal statutes as well as the language in the contract to ensure you follow rules and regulations. Otherwise, you risk a breach of contract .

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Understanding Assignment Clauses in Contracts

Nov 22, 2023 | Contracts

Contracts are an integral part of our daily lives, governing a wide range of transactions from buying goods and services to entering into employment agreements. One often-overlooked yet crucial aspect of contracts is the assignment clause. Understanding assignment clauses is essential for individuals and businesses alike, as they can significantly impact the parties involved. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the intricacies of assignment clauses, their significance, and how they can affect contractual relationships.

Table of Contents

What is an Assignment Clause?

An assignment clause, also known as a delegation clause, is a provision in a contract that dictates whether one party (the assignor) can transfer its rights, obligations, or both to another party (the assignee). In simpler terms, it outlines whether the original parties to the contract can delegate their responsibilities or transfer their benefits to a third party.

Key Components of Assignment Clauses:

Consent Requirement:

Some contracts explicitly state that an assignment can only occur with the consent of all parties involved. This ensures that no party is forced into a relationship with an unknown or potentially undesirable third party.

Prohibition of Assignment:

Conversely, some contracts expressly prohibit assignment altogether. In such cases, the parties to the contract are obligated to fulfill their roles personally, without the option to transfer their obligations or benefits.

Automatic Assignment:

In certain instances, contracts may include automatic assignment clauses. This means that rights and obligations are automatically transferred to a third party without the need for explicit consent.

Notice Requirements:

Assignment clauses often include provisions regarding notice requirements. These stipulate that the assignor must inform the other party or parties involved in the contract about the assignment, providing transparency and an opportunity for objection if necessary.

Significance of Assignment Clauses:

Risk Management:

Assignment clauses play a crucial role in risk management. For the party assigning its rights or obligations, it’s a way to mitigate potential risks and liabilities associated with the contract.

Flexibility:

From a business perspective, assignment clauses offer flexibility. They allow companies to adapt to changing circumstances, such as mergers, acquisitions, or restructuring, without the need to renegotiate every existing contract.

Investment and Financing:

Assignment clauses are of particular importance in financial transactions. Lenders and investors often look for the ability to assign contractual rights as a way to secure their interests.

Contractual Relationships:

Understanding assignment clauses is crucial for maintaining healthy contractual relationships. When parties are aware of the potential for assignment, they can negotiate terms that protect their interests and maintain the intended balance in the contract.

Common Misconceptions:

Assumption of Liabilities:

One common misconception is that by assigning contractual rights, the assignor is automatically relieved of all liabilities. In many cases, unless explicitly stated otherwise, the assignor may still be responsible for fulfilling the contractual obligations.

Unilateral Assignment:

Parties often assume they can unilaterally assign their rights or obligations. However, many contracts require the consent of all involved parties before an assignment can take place.

Case Studies:

To illustrate the practical implications of assignment clauses, let’s examine a couple of hypothetical scenarios:

Real Estate Transactions:

In real estate, assignment clauses are commonly used. For example, if a buyer signs a purchase agreement and later decides to sell the property before closing, the assignment clause dictates whether such a transfer is allowed and under what conditions.

Business Contracts:

In a business context, consider a company that enters into a service agreement with a third party. If the company undergoes a merger, the assignment clause becomes critical in determining whether the rights and obligations under the service agreement can be transferred to the newly formed entity.

Conclusion:

Understanding assignment clauses is fundamental for anyone entering into a contract, whether as an individual or a business entity. These clauses have far-reaching implications, influencing the flexibility, risk management, and overall dynamics of contractual relationships. By carefully considering and negotiating assignment clauses, parties can ensure that their interests are protected and that the contract remains adaptable to the ever-changing landscape of business and personal transactions.

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What is an Assignment Clause?

Jennifer Tsai • January 12, 2023 • 5 minute read

Anti-assignment clauses are common because without them, generally, contracts are freely assignable. (The exceptions are (i) contracts that are subject to statutes or public policies prohibiting their assignment, such as intellectual property contracts, or (ii) contracts where an assignment without consent would cause material and adverse consequences to non-assigning counterparties, such as employment agreements and consulting agreements.) For all other contracts, parties may want an anti-assignment clause that allows them the opportunity to review and understand the impact of an assignment (or change of control) before deciding whether to continue or terminate the relationship.

In the mergers and acquisitions context, an assignment of a contract from a target company entity to the relevant acquirer entity is needed whenever a contract has to be placed in the name of an entity other than the existing target company entity after consummation of a transaction. This is why reviewing contracts for assignment clauses is so critical.

Why Do Assignment Clauses Matter?

How do you review assignment clauses in contracts.

After locating all the assignment language in each agreement, the following variables should be noted as part of the review: (1) Scope of assignment provision, (2) Consequences of failure to obtain consent, (3) Standard for refusing consent, and (4) Differences among counterparties in rights to assign.

1. Scope. Assignment provisions may provide exclusions or inclusions to a counterparty’s right to approve an assignment of a contract. See the examples in the following section below.

2. Consequences of Failure to Obtain Consent. Assignment provisions may specify that, if one party attempts to assign the agreement without the required consent of the counterparty:

• The purported assignment is null and void; and/or\
• The applicable contract is void and terminated.

Contracts should be carefully reviewed to determine which of the foregoing scenarios may apply.

3. Standard for Refusing Consent. Assignment provisions frequently include limitations stating that any counterparty’s consent that is required shall not be “unreasonably withheld,” although the reasonableness standard is rarely defined more specifically in the contract.

In an M&A context, the effect of this language is that it provides a target company with some opportunity to challenge a counterparty that withholds its consent to an assignment. Winning this challenge is far from guaranteed, and this opportunity generally comes at a cost of time and expense since it usually involves a legal challenge to the counterparty’s refusal to grant a consent. Consequently, a target company is incentivized to undertake this challenge only when the applicable contract is material to its post-acquisition business or to the consummation of its proposed transaction. Still, undertaking such a challenge may buy the target company time and provide it with some negotiating leverage in seeking a reversal of a counterparty’s refusal to consent to an assignment.

Determining whether consent has been unreasonably withheld is specific to the facts and circumstances underlying each request for consent. For example, in Athar v. Hudson Serv. Mgmt., Inc., 853 N.Y.S.2d 170 (N.Y. App. Div. 2008), a New York appellate court held that this standard requires the non-consenting party to show some reasonable and objective basis for withholding consent. The withholding of consent cannot be arbitrary or based on unique and personal preferences of the non-consenting party. Generally, the burden of proof to show an unreasonable withholding of consent is on the party requesting consent. Also, the party requesting consent is responsible for providing all information required or necessary to determine whether consent should be granted.

4. Differences Among Counterparties in Rights to Assign. It is important to note any differences in assignment rights between and among contracting parties and the consequences of those differences, as parties with greater negotiating power often have broader assignment rights. These differences can become important if there is a lag of time between signing and closing an M&A transaction. If a target company is required to obtain consent in order to assign an agreement, but the counterparty has rights to freely assign, care should be taken to ensure that any consent granted to a target company to assign a contract does not become subject to review or alteration by any parties to whom the counterparty may freely assign its rights after it has granted its consent to assignment. This is particularly relevant to consents that may lapse or lose their effectiveness if transactions do not close within a certain period of time. For example, if (i) a landlord or licensor subsequently transfers the contract after granting its initial consent, and (ii) such consent lapses pursuant to its terms, the target company might have to re-submit consent requests to completely different parties.

Software that uses AI to identify and extract Assignment clauses can accelerate the work of finding these clauses, and enables a more comprehensive review than can otherwise be done manually.

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Identify and extract assignment clauses in your contracts using AI, then export your results to your preferred format.

Examples of Common Exclusions and Inclusions in Assignment Clauses

A simple anti-assignment provision provides that a party may not assign the agreement without the consent of the other party. Assignment provisions may also provide specific exclusions or inclusions to a counterparty’s right to consent to the assignment of a contract. Below are five common occurrences in which assignment provisions may provide exclusions or inclusions.

Exclusion for Change of Control Transactions

In negotiating an anti-assignment clause, a company would typically seek the exclusion of assignments undertaken in connection with change of control transactions, including mergers and sales of all or substantially all of the assets of the company. This allows a company to undertake a strategic transaction without worry. If an anti-assignment clause doesn’t exclude change of control transactions, a counterparty might materially affect a strategic transaction through delay and/or refusal of consent. Because there are many types of change of control transactions, there is no standard language for these. An example might be:

In the event of the sale or transfer by [Party B] of all or substantially all of its assets related to this Agreement to an Affiliate or to a third party, whether by sale, merger, or change of control, [Party B] would have the right to assign any or all rights and obligations contained herein and the Agreement to such Affiliate or third party without the consent of [Party A] and the Agreement shall be binding upon such acquirer and would remain in full force and effect, at least until the expiration of the then current Term.

Exclusion for Affiliate Transactions

A typical exclusion is one that allows a target company to assign a contract to an affiliate without needing the consent of the contract counterparty. This is much like an exclusion with respect to change of control, since in affiliate transfers or assignments, the ultimate actors and responsible parties under the contract remain essentially the same even though the nominal parties may change. For example:

Either party may assign its rights under this Agreement, including its right to receive payments hereunder, to a subsidiary, affiliate or any financial institution, but in such case the assigning party shall remain liable to the other party for the assigning party’s obligations hereunder. All or any portion of the rights and obligations of [Party A] under this Agreement may be transferred by [Party A] to any of its Affiliates without the consent of [Party B].

Assignment by Operation of Law

Assignments by operation of law typically occur in the context of transfers of rights and obligations in accordance with merger statutes and can be specifically included in or excluded from assignment provisions. An inclusion could be negotiated by the parties to broaden the anti-assignment clause and to ensure that an assignment occurring by operation of law requires counterparty approval:

[Party A] agrees that it will not assign, sublet or otherwise transfer its rights hereunder, either voluntarily or by operations of law, without the prior written consent of [Party B].

While an exclusion could be negotiated by a target company to make it clear that it has the right to assign the contract even though it might otherwise have that right as a matter of law:

This Guaranty shall be binding upon the successors and assigns of [Party A]; provided, that no transfer, assignment or delegation by [Party A], other than a transfer, assignment or delegation by operation of law, without the consent of [Party B], shall release [Party A] from its liabilities hereunder.

This helps settle any ambiguity regarding assignments and their effects under mergers statutes (particularly in forward triangular mergers and forward mergers since the target company ceases to exist upon consummation of the merger).

Direct or Indirect Assignment

More ambiguity can arise regarding which actions or transactions require a counterparty’s consent when assignment clauses prohibit both direct and indirect assignments without the consent of a counterparty. Transaction parties will typically choose to err on the side of over-inclusiveness in determining which contracts will require consent when dealing with material contracts. An example clause prohibiting direct or indirect assignment might be:

Except as provided hereunder or under the Merger Agreement, such Shareholder shall not, directly or indirectly, (i) transfer (which term shall include any sale, assignment, gift, pledge, hypothecation or other disposition), or consent to or permit any such transfer of, any or all of its Subject Shares, or any interest therein.

“Transfer” of Agreement vs. “Assignment” of Agreement

In some instances, assignment provisions prohibit “transfers” of agreements in addition to, or instead of, explicitly prohibiting “assignments”. Often, the word “transfer” is not defined in the agreement, in which case the governing law of the contract will determine the meaning of the term and whether prohibition on transfers are meant to prohibit a broader or narrower range of transactions than prohibitions on assignments. Note that the current jurisprudence on the meaning of an assignment is broader and deeper than it is on the meaning of a transfer. In the rarer case where “transfer” is defined, it might look like this:

As used in this Agreement, the term “transfer” includes the Franchisee’s voluntary, involuntary, direct or indirect assignment, sale, gift or other disposition of any interest in …

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An assignment clause (AC) is an important part of many contracts, especially for real estate. In this article we discuss:

• What is an Assignment Clause? (with Example)
• Anti-Assignment Clauses (with Example)
• Non-Assignment Clauses
• Important Considerations
• How Assets America ® Can Help

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an assignment clause.

An AC is part of a contract governing the sale of a property and other transactions. It deals with questions regarding the assignment of the property in the purchase agreement. The thrust of the assignment clause is that the buyer can rent, lease, repair, sell, or assign the property.

To “assign” simply means to hand off the benefits and obligations of a contract from one party to another. In short, it’s the transfer of contractual rights.

In-Depth Definition

Explicitly, an AC expresses the liabilities surrounding the assignment from the assignor to the assignee. The real estate contract assignment clause can take on two different forms, depending on the contract author:

• The AC states that the assignor makes no representations or warranties about the property or the agreement. This makes the assignment “AS IS.”
• The assignee won’t hold the assignor at fault. It protects the assignor from damages, liabilities, costs, claims, or other expenses stemming from the agreement.

The contract’s assignment clause states the “buyer and/or assigns.” In this clause, “assigns” is a noun that means assignees. It refers to anyone you choose to receive your property rights.

The assignment provision establishes the fact that the buyer (who is the assignor) can assign the property to an assignee. Upon assignment, the assignee becomes the new buyer.

The AC conveys to the assignee both the AC’s property rights and the AC’s contract obligations. After an assignment, the assignor is out of the picture.

What is a Lease Assignment?

Assignment Clause Example

This is an example of a real estate contract assignment clause :

“The Buyer reserves the right to assign this contract in whole or in part to any third party without further notice to the Seller; said assignment not to relieve the Buyer from his or her obligation to complete the terms and conditions of this contract should be assigning default.”

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Assignment provision.

An assignment provision is a separate clause that states the assignee’s acceptance of the contract assignment.

Assignment Provision Example

Here is an example of an assignment provision :

“Investor, as Assignee, hereby accepts the above and foregoing Assignment of Contract dated XXXX, XX, 20XX by and between Assignor and ____________________ (seller) and agrees to assume all of the obligations and perform all of the duties of Assignor under the Contract.”

Anti-Assignment Clauses & Non-Assignment Clauses

An anti-assignment clause prevents either party from assigning a contract without the permission of the other party. It typically does so by prohibiting payment for the assignment. A non-assignment clause is another name for an anti-assignment clause.

Anti-Assignment Clause Example

This is an anti-assignment clause example from the AIA Standard Form of Agreement:

” The Party 1 and Party 2, respectively, bind themselves, their partners, successors, assigns, and legal representatives to the other party to this Agreement and to the partners, successors, assigns, and legal representatives of such other party with respect to all covenants of this Agreement. Neither Party 1 nor Party 2 shall assign this Agreement without the written consent of the other.”

Important Considerations for Assignment Contracts

The presence of an AC triggers several important considerations.

Assignment Fee

In essence, the assignor is a broker that brings together a buyer and seller. As such, the assignor collects a fee for this service. Naturally, the assignor doesn’t incur the normal expenses of a buyer.

Rather, the new buyer assumes those expenses. In reality, the assignment fee replaces the fee the realtor or broker would charge in a normal transaction. Frequently, the assignment fee is less than a regular brokerage fee.

For example, compare a 2% assignment fee compared to a 6% brokerage fee. That’s a savings of $200,000 on a $5 million purchase price. Wholesalers are professionals who earn a living through assignments.

Frequently, the assignor will require that the assignee deposit the fee into escrow. Typically, the fee is not refundable, even if the assignee backs out of the deal after signing the assignment provision. In some cases, the assignee will fork over the fee directly to the assignor.

Assignor Intent

Just because the contract contains an AC does not obligate the buyer to assign the contract. The buyer remains the buyer unless it chooses to exercise the AC, at which point it becomes the assignor. It is up to the buyer to decide whether to go through with the purchase or assign the contract.

Nonetheless, the AC signals the seller of your possible intent to assign the purchase contract to someone else. For one thing, the seller might object if you try to assign the property without an AC.

You can have serious problems at closing if you show up with a surprise assignee. In fact, you could jeopardize the entire deal.

Another thing to consider is whether the buyer’s desire for an AC in the contract will frighten the seller. Perhaps the seller is very picky about the type of buyer to whom it will sell.

Or perhaps the seller has heard horror stories, real or fake, about assignments. Whatever the reason, the real estate contract assignment clause might put a possible deal in jeopardy.

Chain of Title

If you assign a property before the closing, you will not be in the chain of title. Obviously, this differs from the case in which you sell the property five minutes after buying it.

In the latter case, your name will appear in the chain of title twice, once as the buyer and again as the seller. In addition, the latter case would involve two sets of closing costs, whereas there would only one be for the assignment case. This includes back-to-back (or double) closings.

Enforceability

Assignment might not be enforceable in all situations, such as when:

• State law or public policy prohibits it.
• The contract prohibits it.
• The assignment significantly changes the expectations of the seller. Those expectations can include decreasing the value of the property or increasing the risk of default.

Also note that REO (real estate owned) properties, HUD properties, and listed properties usually don’t permit assignment contracts. An REO property is real estate owned by a bank after foreclosure. Typically, these require a 90-day period before a property can be resold.

How Assets America Can Help

The AC is a portion of a purchase agreement. When a purchase involves a commercial property requiring a loan of $10 million or greater, Assets America ® can arrange your financing.

We can finance wholesalers who decide to go through with a purchase. Alternatively, we can finance assignees as well. In either case, we offer expedient, professional financing and many supporting services. Contact us today for a confidential consultation.

What rights can you assign despite a contract clause expressly prohibiting assignment?

Normally, a prohibition against assignment does not curb the right to receive payments due. However, circumstances may cause the opposite outcome. Additionally, prohibition doesn’t prevent the right to money that the contract specifies is due.

What is the purpose of an assignment of rents clause in a deed of trust and who benefits?

The assignment of rents clause is a provision in a mortgage or deed of trust. It gives the lender the right to collect rents from mortgaged properties if the borrower defaults. All incomes and rents from a secured property flow to the lender and offset the outstanding debt. Clearly, this benefits the lender.

What is in assignment clause in a health insurance contract?

Commonly, health insurance policies contain assignment of benefits (AOB) clauses. These clauses allow the insurer to pay benefits directly to health care providers instead of the patient. In some cases, the provider has the patient sign an assignment agreement that accomplishes the same outcome. The provider submits the AOB agreement along with the insurance claim.

What does “assignment clause” mean for liability insurance?

The clause would allow the assignment of proceeds from a liability award payable to a third party. However, the insured must consent to the clause or else it isn’t binding. This restriction applies only before a loss. After a first party loss, the insurer’s consent no longer matters.

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Ronny was a pleasure to work with and is extremely knowledgeable. His hard work was never ending until the job was done. They handled a complex lease and guided us through entire process, including the paperwork. Not to mention a below market lease rate and more than all the features we needed in a site. We later used Assets America for a unique equipment financing deal where once again Ronny and team exceeded our expectations and our timeline. Thank you to Assets America for your highly professional service!

Great experience with Assets America. Fast turn around. Had a lender in place in 30 minutes looking to do the deal. Totally amazing. Highly recommend them to anyone looking for financing. Ronny is fantastic. Give them a call if the deal makes sense they can get it funded. Referring all our clients.

Assets America guided us every step of the way in finding and leasing our large industrial building with attached offices. They handled all of the complex lease negotiations and contractual paperwork. Ultimately, we received exactly the space we needed along with a lower than market per square foot pricing, lease length and end of term options we requested. In addition to the real estate lease, Assets America utilized their decades-long financial expertise to negotiate fantastic rates and terms on our large and very unique multimillion dollar equipment purchase/lease. We were thankful for how promptly and consistently they kept us informed and up to date on each step of our journey. They were always available to answer each and every one of our questions. Overall, they provided my team with a fantastic and highly professional service!

Assets America was responsible for arranging financing for two of my multi million dollar commercial projects. At the time of financing, it was extremely difficult to obtain bank financing for commercial real estate. Not only was Assets America successful, they were able to obtain an interest rate lower than going rates. The company is very capable, I would recommend Assets America to any company requiring commercial financing.

Assets America was incredibly helpful and professional in assisting us in purchasing our property. It was great to have such knowledgeable and super-experienced, licensed pros in our corner, pros upon which we could fully rely. They helped and successfully guided us to beat out 9 other competing offers! They were excellent at communicating with us at all times and they were extremely responsive. Having them on our team meant that we could always receive truthful, timely and accurate answers to our questions. We would most definitely utilize their services again and again for all of our real estate needs.

Assets America is a great company to work with. No hassles. Recommend them to everyone. Professional, fast response time and definitely gets the job done.

Ronny at Assets America has been invaluable to us and definitely is tops in his field. Great experience. Would refer them to all our business associates.

We were very pleased with Assets America’s expertise and prompt response to our inquiry. They were very straight forward with us and helped a great deal. We referred them to all our business associates.

I’ve worked with this company for decades. They are reputable, knowledgeable, and ethical with proven results. I highly recommend them to anyone needing commercial financing.

Ronny was incredibly adept and responsive – top-notch professional who arranged impressive term sheets.

Assets America helped us survive a very difficult time and we most definitely give them 5 stars!

Ronny was very friendly and though we were unable to make something happen at the moment he gave me some direction to go.

My business partner and I were looking to purchase a retail shopping center in southern California.  We sought out the services of Ronny, CFO of Assets America.  Ronny found us several commercial properties which met our desired needs.  We chose the property we liked best, and Ronny went to work. He negotiated very aggressively on our behalf. We came to terms with the Seller, entered into a purchase agreement and opened escrow.  Additionally, we needed 80 percent financing on our multimillion-dollar purchase.  Assets America also handled the commercial loan for us.  They were our One-Stop-Shop. They obtained fantastic, low, fixed rate insurance money for us.  So, Assets America handled both the sale and the loan for us and successfully closed our escrow within the time frame stated in the purchase agreement.  Ronny did and performed exactly as he said he would. Ronny and his company are true professionals.  In this day and age, it’s especially rare and wonderful to work with a person who actually does what he says he will do.  We recommend them to anyone needing any type of commercial real estate transaction and we further highly recommend them for any type of commercial financing.  They were diligent and forthright on both accounts and brought our deal to a successful closing.

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Contract Corner: Assignment and Delegation

Tech & sourcing @ morgan lewis.

An assignment and delegation provision is the clause that specifies a party’s ability to assign its rights or delegate its duties under an agreement. It is a provision that is often placed in the “miscellaneous” or “general” sections of commercial contracts, but it should not be thought of as standard “boilerplate” language that never changes.

Contracting parties should carefully consider the potential situations where an assignment would be desired or required, and should carefully draft the clause to address issues of transferability. Below is an overview of some of the key issues that should be considered when drafting an assignment provision for commercial and technology agreements. Note that, technically, a party assigns its rights and delegates its duties. This overview generally refers to assignments for shorthand.

• Yes or no to assignment . The first step is fairly straightforward. Does a party want to allow assignment or prohibit it? Most jurisdictions permit the free transferability of contracts if the contract is silent on assignment, so if there is a desire to restrict assignment, an anti-assignment clause must be included.
• Assignment of entire contract vs. individual rights and obligations . Consider whether the goal is to restrict or allow the assignment of the entire contract or individual rights or obligations. If the clause generally prohibits assignment of the agreement, courts commonly read that language to restrict only the delegation of performance, while permitting a party to assign its rights under the contract (such as license rights or the right to receive payment). To restrict such assignment of individual rights, it is important to include language such as “neither this Agreement, nor any rights or obligations hereunder , shall be assignable or otherwise transferable .”
• Specify when assignment is permitted and what rights and duties may be assigned . Generally, if specific assignment rights are to be granted, best practices are to include the general restriction highlighted above and then to provide any permitted assignment rights (e.g., “provided that either party may assign . . .”). The provision would specify the situations where assignment is permitted and what rights and duties may be assigned, such as an assignment of rights to a party’s affiliates, to an entity into which the party has merged, or to a successor organization.
• Notice and consent . If assignment is permitted, does the assigning party need to obtain the non-assigning party’s consent to the assignment? Or is notice sufficient? If consent is required, consider whether the non-assigning party has complete discretion to withhold consent or whether consent must not be unreasonably withheld or delayed.
• Impermissible transfers . Another key issue to address is what happens when there is an assignment in violation of an anti-assignment clause. Because courts generally interpret anti-assignment clauses narrowly, in the absence of additional language, an assignment that violates an anti-assignment provision will likely be considered a valid assignment in breach of the agreement. In other words, the non-assignment party can claim breach, but cannot prevent the actual assignment. To avoid this scenario, additional language should be included to void the impermissible transfer, such as: “Any attempted assignment in violation of the provisions of this Section shall be null and void.”
• Divested entities, mergers, acquisitions, and change of control . Organizations are likely to undergo a change in structure at some point. It is important to consider such situations and to specify a party’s ability to transfer its rights or duties to a divested entity or through an M&A transaction or other change of control. Frequently, issues related to competition and intellectual property will need to be considered, and these exceptions to an anti-assignment provision can be nuanced and require specific language to achieve the desired results. As part of the drafting process, parties should carefully analyze the types of transactions that could trigger an anti-assignment provision and include language to address the intended outcomes.

This Contract Corner highlights the importance of not assuming the assignment provision in the final “Miscellaneous” section of an agreement is standard language that needs no review. Each of the issues discussed above should be carefully considered and the assignment provision should be drafted to address these issues.

Contract Corner is a regular feature of the Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis blog. Please be on the lookout for future posts.

Understanding an assignment and assumption agreement

Need to assign your rights and duties under a contract? Learn more about the basics of an assignment and assumption agreement.

Get your assignment of agreement

by   Belle Wong, J.D.

Belle Wong, is a freelance writer specializing in small business, personal finance, banking, and tech/SAAS. She ...

Read more...

Updated on: November 24, 2023 · 3 min read

The assignment and assumption agreement

The basics of assignment and assumption, filling in the assignment and assumption agreement.

While every business should try its best to meet its contractual obligations, changes in circumstance can happen that could necessitate transferring your rights and duties under a contract to another party who would be better able to meet those obligations.

If you find yourself in such a situation, and your contract provides for the possibility of assignment, an assignment and assumption agreement can be a good option for preserving your relationship with the party you initially contracted with, while at the same time enabling you to pass on your contractual rights and duties to a third party.

An assignment and assumption agreement is used after a contract is signed, in order to transfer one of the contracting party's rights and obligations to a third party who was not originally a party to the contract. The party making the assignment is called the assignor, while the third party accepting the assignment is known as the assignee.

In order for an assignment and assumption agreement to be valid, the following criteria need to be met:

• The initial contract must provide for the possibility of assignment by one of the initial contracting parties.
• The assignor must agree to assign their rights and duties under the contract to the assignee.
• The assignee must agree to accept, or "assume," those contractual rights and duties.
• The other party to the initial contract must consent to the transfer of rights and obligations to the assignee.

A standard assignment and assumption contract is often a good starting point if you need to enter into an assignment and assumption agreement. However, for more complex situations, such as an assignment and amendment agreement in which several of the initial contract terms will be modified, or where only some, but not all, rights and duties will be assigned, it's a good idea to retain the services of an attorney who can help you draft an agreement that will meet all your needs.

When you're ready to enter into an assignment and assumption agreement, it's a good idea to have a firm grasp of the basics of assignment:

• First, carefully read and understand the assignment and assumption provision in the initial contract. Contracts vary widely in their language on this topic, and each contract will have specific criteria that must be met in order for a valid assignment of rights to take place.
• All parties to the agreement should carefully review the document to make sure they each know what they're agreeing to, and to help ensure that all important terms and conditions have been addressed in the agreement.
• Until the agreement is signed by all the parties involved, the assignor will still be obligated for all responsibilities stated in the initial contract. If you are the assignor, you need to ensure that you continue with business as usual until the assignment and assumption agreement has been properly executed.

Unless you're dealing with a complex assignment situation, working with a template often is a good way to begin drafting an assignment and assumption agreement that will meet your needs. Generally speaking, your agreement should include the following information:

• Identification of the existing agreement, including details such as the date it was signed and the parties involved, and the parties' rights to assign under this initial agreement
• The effective date of the assignment and assumption agreement
• Identification of the party making the assignment (the assignor), and a statement of their desire to assign their rights under the initial contract
• Identification of the third party accepting the assignment (the assignee), and a statement of their acceptance of the assignment
• Identification of the other initial party to the contract, and a statement of their consent to the assignment and assumption agreement
• A section stating that the initial contract is continued; meaning, that, other than the change to the parties involved, all terms and conditions in the original contract stay the same

In addition to these sections that are specific to an assignment and assumption agreement, your contract should also include standard contract language, such as clauses about indemnification, future amendments, and governing law.

Sometimes circumstances change, and as a business owner you may find yourself needing to assign your rights and duties under a contract to another party. A properly drafted assignment and assumption agreement can help you make the transfer smoothly while, at the same time, preserving the cordiality of your initial business relationship under the original contract.

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What Is an Assignment of Contract?

Assignment of Contract Explained

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Assignment of contract allows one person to assign, or transfer, their rights, obligations, or property to another. An assignment of contract clause is often included in contracts to give either party the opportunity to transfer their part of the contract to someone else in the future. Many assignment clauses require that both parties agree to the assignment.

Learn more about assignment of contract and how it works.

What Is Assignment of Contract?

Assignment of contract means the contract and the property, rights, or obligations within it can be assigned to another party. An assignment of contract clause can typically be found in a business contract. This type of clause is common in contracts with suppliers or vendors and in intellectual property (patent, trademark , and copyright) agreements.

How Does Assignment of Contract Work?

An assignment may be made to anyone, but it is typically made to a subsidiary or a successor. A subsidiary is a business owned by another business, while a successor is the business that follows a sale, acquisition, or merger.

Let’s suppose Ken owns a lawn mowing service and he has a contract with a real estate firm to mow at each of their offices every week in the summer. The contract includes an assignment clause, so when Ken goes out of business, he assigns the contract to his sister-in-law Karrie, who also owns a lawn mowing service.

Before you try to assign something in a contract, check the contract to make sure it's allowed, and notify the other party in the contract.

Assignment usually is included in a specific clause in a contract. It typically includes transfer of both accountability and responsibility to another party, but liability usually remains with the assignor (the person doing the assigning) unless there is language to the contrary.

What Does Assignment of Contract Cover?

Generally, just about anything of value in a contract can be assigned, unless there is a specific law or public policy disallowing the assignment.

Rights and obligations of specific people can’t be assigned because special skills and abilities can’t be transferred. This is called specific performance.   For example, Billy Joel wouldn't be able to transfer or assign a contract to perform at Madison Square Garden to someone else—they wouldn't have his special abilities.

Assignments won’t stand up in court if the assignment significantly changes the terms of the contract. For example, if Karrie’s business is tree trimming, not lawn mowing, the contract can’t be assigned to her.

Assigning Intellectual Property

Intellectual property (such as copyrights, patents, and trademarks) has value, and these assets are often assigned. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) says patents are personal property and that patent rights can be assigned. Trademarks, too, can be assigned. The assignment must be registered with the USPTO's Electronic Trademark Assignment System (ETAS) .  

The U.S. Copyright Office doesn't keep a database of copyright assignments, but they will record the document if you follow their procedure.

Alternatives to Assignment of Contract

There are other types of transfers that may be functional alternatives to assignment.

Licensing is an agreement whereby one party leases the rights to use a piece of property (for example, intellectual property) from another. For instance, a business that owns a patent may license another company to make products using that patent.  

Delegation permits someone else to act on your behalf. For example, Ken’s lawn service might delegate Karrie to do mowing for him without assigning the entire contract to her. Ken would still receive the payment and control the work.

Do I Need an Assignment of Contract?

Assignment of contract can be a useful clause to include in a business agreement. The most common cases of assignment of contract in a business situation are:

• Assignment of a trademark, copyright, or patent
• Assignments to a successor company in the case of the sale of the business
• Assignment in a contract with a supplier or customer
• Assignment in an employment contract or work for hire agreement

Before you sign a contract, look to see if there is an assignment clause, and get the advice of an attorney if you want to assign something in a contract.

Key Takeaways

• Assignment of contract is the ability to transfer rights, property, or obligations to another.
• Assignment of contract is a clause often found in business contracts.
• A party may assign a contract to another party if the contract permits it and no law forbids it.

Legal Information Institute. " Assignment ." Accessed Jan. 2, 2021.

Legal Information Institute. " Specific Performance ." Accessed Jan. 2, 2021.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. " 301 Ownership/Assignability of Patents and Applications [R-10.2019] ." Accessed Jan. 2, 2021.

Licensing International. " What is Licensing ." Accessed Jan. 2, 2021.

When Is An "Assignment" Clause Worth Fighting For?

Contributor.

Q. My small business is negotiating with a vendor who has asked to remove our contract’s “assignment” clause entirely. Is it worth the time to argue over whether to include an assignment clause?

A.  First, it’s important to understand the purpose of the assignment clause. “Assignment” occurs when a party transfers its rights and obligations under a contract to another party. Generally, unless the parties have agreed otherwise, each can assign its rights and obligations freely.

Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, a set of laws governing the sale of goods that has been adopted by 49 states, including New Hampshire, provides that a party can freely assign its rights and obligations to another unless such assignment would materially change the duties of the other party, burden the other party, or decrease the other party’s chances of receiving performance under the contract.

If your vendor eliminates the assignment clause and no agreement on the topic is provided in the contract, your vendor will be free to transfer its obligations to another person or company without giving you notice or obtaining your approval.

Parties do have the ability, however, to mutually decide against the free assignability of a contract and this is often accomplished through an assignment clause. An assignment clause spells out which, if any, of a party’s obligations and rights under a contract are able to be assigned, or transferred, to another party. Free assignability and no assignability are not the only options, and you and your vendor can negotiate terms for assignment that are amenable to both of you.

For example, some clauses allow for assignment with the other party’s consent, meaning, the vendor would have to obtain your approval of the assignee prior to assigning any of its rights or obligations under the contract. Other times, assignment clauses allow for free assignment only to certain persons or entities, such as the vendor’s subsidiaries and affiliates, provided that the vendor gives you notice of such permitted assignment. Another option is to allow for assignment by the vendor provided that it guaranties the assignee’s performance.

Consider potential situations in which the vendor may want to assign the contract and determine whether it’s important to you to have control over assignment in each instance.

Consider discussing situations in which it may be important for the vendor to have freedom of assignment and, instead of removing the provision all together, specify those situations in which assignment is permitted, list those rights or obligations that are assignable, and consider whether, when assignment is permitted, notice, consent or a guaranty will be required.

Published in the Union Leader (2/25/2019)

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

Corporate/Commercial Law

United states.

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UnCoVar: a reproducible and scalable workflow for transparent and robust virus variant calling and lineage assignment using SARS-CoV-2 as an example

• Alexander Thomas 1   na1 ,
• Thomas Battenfeld 1   na1 ,
• Ivana Kraiselburd 1 ,
• Olympia Anastasiou 2 ,
• Ulf Dittmer 2 ,
• Ann-Kathrin Dörr 1 ,
• Adrian Dörr 1 ,
• Carina Elsner 2 ,
• Jule Gosch 1 ,
• Vu Thuy Khanh Le-Trilling 2 , 3 ,
• Simon Magin 1 ,
• René Scholtysik 3 ,
• Pelin Yilmaz 1 ,
• Mirko Trilling 2 , 3 ,
• Lara Schöler 2 , 3 , 4 ,
• Johannes Köster 5 , 6   na2 &
• Folker Meyer 1   na2  

BMC Genomics volume  25 , Article number:  647 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

22 Accesses

Metrics details

At a global scale, the SARS-CoV-2 virus did not remain in its initial genotype for a long period of time, with the first global reports of variants of concern (VOCs) in late 2020. Subsequently, genome sequencing has become an indispensable tool for characterizing the ongoing pandemic, particularly for typing SARS-CoV-2 samples obtained from patients or environmental surveillance. For such SARS-CoV-2 typing, various in vitro and in silico workflows exist, yet to date, no systematic cross-platform validation has been reported.

In this work, we present the first comprehensive cross-platform evaluation and validation of in silico SARS-CoV-2 typing workflows. The evaluation relies on a dataset of 54 patient-derived samples sequenced with several different in vitro approaches on all relevant state-of-the-art sequencing platforms. Moreover, we present UnCoVar, a robust, production-grade reproducible SARS-CoV-2 typing workflow that outperforms all other tested approaches in terms of precision and recall.

Conclusions

In many ways, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has accelerated the development of techniques and analytical approaches. We believe that this can serve as a blueprint for dealing with future pandemics. Accordingly, UnCoVar is easily generalizable towards other viral pathogens and future pandemics. The fully automated workflow assembles virus genomes from patient samples, identifies existing lineages, and provides high-resolution insights into individual mutations. UnCoVar includes extensive quality control and automatically generates interactive visual reports. UnCoVar is implemented as a Snakemake workflow. The open-source code is available under a BSD 2-clause license at github.com/IKIM-Essen/uncovar .

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Since its first identification, more than 760 million cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported Footnote 1 since December 2019. The causative pathogen SARS-CoV-2 has affected the lives of billions of people, and researchers found infection or vaccination-induced antibodies in 96% of their subjects in a longitudinal study [ 1 ]. High infection rates and continuing uncontrolled transmission led to the emergence and spread of viral lineages carrying fitness-enhancing mutations [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], while controlling transmission and vaccination promoted the evolution of immune-evasive alterations in the viral genome [ 12 ]. Due to their relatively high transmissibility [ 3 , 5 , 10 , 13 , 14 ], such variants of concern (VOCs) carrying mutations beneficial for the virus have replaced the wild type [ 3 , 15 , 16 ], making whole-genome sequencing with next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches instrumental for assessing the genomic diversity of the virus in patients.

Previous work has focused on the reconstruction of virus genomes [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ] and the surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 genomes [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]; however, limited attention has been given to reproducibility and portability. In addition, no comprehensive multiplatform benchmark dataset from various protocols and sequencing instruments, including Sanger sequences as ground truth for assessing SARS-CoV-2-related workflows, has been devised thus far. In this work, we present both benchmark dataset and UnCoVar, a reproducible, transparent, and scalable analysis workflow that accepts sequencing products from various protocols. UnCoVar has been extensively optimized for SARS-CoV-2 in routine clinical application and environmental surveillance during the pandemic while being straightforwardly adaptable to future outbreaks of other viruses.

The UnCoVar workflow

UnCoVar is a Snakemake [ 26 ] workflow for virus analysis that provides full in silico reproducibility, diagnostic transparency, uncertainty awareness, and extensive interactive graphical exploration of results.

UnCoVar is publicly available at https://github.com/IKIM-Essen/uncovar under the BSD-2-clause license. Detailed information on the software tools and libraries used in UnCoVar and its usage are available at https://ikim-essen.github.io/uncovar .

UnCoVar consists of four main modules: (i) preprocessing and quality control of raw sequence data, (ii) de novo assembly, reference-guided scaffolding, variant calling and consensus building, (iii) lineage detection, and (iv) aggregation of results and report generation (Fig.  1 ). Instructions on installation, deployment, configuration and execution as well as a detailed description of the tool chain can be found in the online documentation.

Outline of UnCoVar. The individual steps of the workflow can be summarized as follows: preprocessing, assembly and variant calling, lineage detection and result generation

The approaches used for quality control, preprocessing, assembly and lineage detection are described in Table  1 . We highlight that only the lineage detection tool Pangolin is SARS-CoV-2 specific (specificity tested against Non-SARS-CoV-2 Corona viruses; Appendix Chap. 5), and the pipeline can easily be adapted to other viral pathogens by registering the respective reference genomes and using Kallisto [ 27 ] instead of Pangolin [ 28 ] for lineage detection. Moreover, we expect Pangolin (or a successor) to be adapted in the case of future non-SARS-CoV-2 pandemics. With this amount of flexibility, UnCoVar serves the concept for a Disease X [ 29 ] analysis tool, a yet unknown pathogen with the potential for an endemic or pandemic outbreak.

UnCoVar is adjustable via a thoroughly documented configuration file. It supports whole-genome shotgun and amplicon-based sequencing from Illumina and Nanopore sequencing and has been extensively tested with data from both sequencing methods from a clinical dataset. In the following, we provide methodological details of the major functionalities of UnCoVar.

• Variant calling

UnCoVar employs technology-specific variant callers (short reads: freeBayes [ 40 ] for small variants and DELLY [ 41 ] for structural variants; long reads: Medaka variant [ 35 ] for small variants and Longshot [ 42 ] for structural variants) to obtain a list of candidate variants for each investigated sample. The candidate variants are subsequently given to the generic variant classification functionality of Varlociraptor Footnote 2 [43].

Complementary genome reconstruction methods

A variety of assemblers have been compared and two default assembly options have been selected according to each library preparation method (MEGAHIT [ 36 ] for shotgun, metaSPAdes [ 37 ] for amplicon derived samples) based on the best performance (Appendix Chap. 4 and Figures A2 + A3). All alternative assembly tools tested (Trinity [ 44 ], Velvet [ 45 ], MEGAHIT-meta large/sensitive and corona- [ 46 ] /rnaviral-/ standard SPAdes [ 47 ]), are available and can be used via selecting them in UnCoVar’s config file. The pipeline offers two approaches for determining the genomic sequence of a given virus sample. The first (and preferred) approach uses de novo assembly, followed by reference-guided scaffolding. Then, reads are mapped against the obtained assembly using BWA-MEM [ 48 ], and variants are called with Varlociraptor (see section Variant calling ). Variants for which the subclonal-major, subclonal-high and clonal events summed to at least a probability of 0.95 were used to polish the assembly. Low-quality loci (those with low read depth and ambiguous basecalls) are masked by N or IUPAC codes Footnote 3

The second approach maps reads against the primary reference genome of the investigated virus and applies the above polishing approach to the reference genome, including the masking of uncovered regions.

• Lineage assignment

Lineage calling approaches fall into two distinct classes: those requiring an almost fully reconstructed genome sequence [ 49 ] and those using raw sequencing products in the form of reads, without the necessity of sequence assembly [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ].

UnCoVar offers three approaches for assigning lineages to samples. First, based on the obtained genome reconstruction, in the case of SARS-CoV-2, UnCoVar utilizes the machine learning driven method Pangolin [ 28 ] to assign a lineage.

Second, it employs Kallisto [ 27 ] to quantify the numbers of reads originating from given lineage reference sequences, and subsequently calculates their fraction among the total amount of mappable reads. This approach has the advantage of being able to detect lineage mixtures within a single sample, which can allow the detection of mixed infections or the assessment of wastewater samples.

To account for the rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2, UnCoVar offers a comparison between the investigated sample and the most similar lineages at the level of individual variants. The pipeline obtains the catalog of all known amino acid and noncoding alterations of variants/lineages of concern (VOCs) available on covariants.org. Amino acid alterations are back-translated into all potential causing multiple nucleotide variants (MNVs). The resulting set of candidate variants is called using Varlociraptor (see section Variant calling , leveraging Varlociraptor’s functionality to classify any set of candidate variants). To determine the degree of similarity between the sample and the VOCs, we performed the following scoring. Let n be the total number of variants and m be the number of VOCs. Let X be a binary matrix that relates variants with VOCs, namely, X i,j = 1 if and only if variant i is in VOC j , with i = 1,…, n and j = 1,…, m . Let θ i be the latent allele frequency of variant i in the given sample and \({{\hat \theta }_i}\) be the maximum a posteriori estimate of θ i as provided by Varlociraptor. Let \({p_i} = Pr\left( {{\theta _i}\, > \,0\,|\,D} \right)\) be the posterior probability that the variant i is present in the sample (i.e., the probability that its latent allele frequency is greater than zero, given the data D ). Then, the similarity of a given sample to VOC j can be calculated as the Jaccard-like similarity score:

The better the variant pattern of a VOC is matched (present true positive plus absent true negative mutations), the closer the similarity score is to one. In contrast, if the variant pattern tends toward being the opposite of a VOC, the corresponding score tends toward zero. A low maximum a posteriori VAF estimate or a weaker probability lowers the summand for a specific variant \(i\) , such that the overall score decreases.

In this way, UnCoVar is capable of assigning lineage similarities without a fully reconstructed genome, which is especially useful when the analyzed samples are derived from patients with low-level viremia or from environmental sewage water samples, where the abundance of viral RNAs is low and potentially contains several different lineages. UnCoVar reports the top 10 VOC lineages found based on the calculated Jaccard-like similarity of all present and absent mutations included in the VOC database.

Graphical report

UnCoVar’s high-level interactive graphical reporting interface allows noncomputational scientists to navigate the details of the analysis and results. The user interface provides an accurate picture of uncertainties in the data. The Snakemake-generated report is portable and maintenance-free since it does not require a running and constantly maintained database or web service. It can be easily archived, distributed via email, a static web server, or any file-sharing platform and solely requires an HTML5 Footnote 4 compliant web browser to be viewed (see Fig.  2 ). A detailed overview of all included results can be found on the GitHub pages of UnCoVar ( https://ikim-essen.github.io/uncovar/ ).

Four different example elements of the results generated by UnCoVar: (a) The genome coverage of the aligned reads, visualized for multiple samples, (b) evaluation of known protein alterations from VOCs for one sample, (c) a pileup of reads at the position of one protein alteration. The mutations observed for multiple reads (gray bars) for a single sample, here in the S gene, (d) The lineage assignments inferred for single reads for one sample. Unmapped reads can be attributed to low sequence quality and variation beyond the considered lineages

The benchmark dataset

We present a benchmark dataset of 54 clinical SARS-CoV-2 patient samples. These 54 samples were obtained from SARS-CoV-2 qPCR-positive patients at the University Hospital Essen, Germany, covering the period from February to September 2021 Footnote 5 . For all the samples, cDNA synthesis was conducted using the LunaScript ® RT SuperMix kit (New England Biolabs, USA). Subsequently, all samples underwent Sanger sequencing for a portion of the genome region encoding the S protein as well as two separate procedures for the targeted sequencing of complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes by tiled amplicons. First, a sequencing library was prepared according to the LoCost nCoV-2019 sequencing protocol (Quick) using the ARTICv3 primer panel (Integrated DNA Technologies, Coralville, Iowa) for loading onto an R9.4.1 Flow Cell and subsequent sequencing on a GridION device (Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Oxford, United Kingdom). Second, library preparation was performed using the EasySeq™ SARS-CoV-2 WGS kit (NimaGen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands), followed by sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA, USA). For a subset of 32 samples, library preparation was additionally performed using the Illumina COVIDSeq Assay Kit (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA, USA) followed by sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq platform. The approaches of the Illumina and NimaGen library preparation kits are similar, except that the EasySeq kit combines cDNA amplification and index PCR in a single reaction. Since the dataset was collected in the middle of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we carefully curated the matching between the different technologies to rule out human errors. As a result, we discarded 22 Illumina samples due to potential sample swaps. The data generated by all different approaches were then analyzed and used to benchmark precision and recall across different sequencing platforms in terms of calling individual mutations, virus lineages, and sequence assemblies. The raw NGS benchmarking data is available for download at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/browser/view/PRJEB73579 .

Using the presented benchmark dataset, we analyzed the performance of UnCoVar and other state-of-the-art analysis pipelines in terms of precision, recall and runtime. Furthermore, we investigated the required number and length of reads needed for accurate lineage assignment in UnCoVar and examined the time required to execute the workflow. Finally, we compared UnCoVar against other available pipelines using the benchmark dataset described above.

Benchmarking

To assess the different sequencing protocols, the preprocessed reads (see Methods) were aligned to the primary SARS-CoV-2 reference genome from Wuhan (NC_045512.2 or MN908947), and variants were called using UnCoVar. Only variants with a posterior probability ≥ 0.95 for presence according to Varlociraptor were considered, thereby controlling the local false discovery rate in a Bayesian sense at 0.05. The observed variants were compared with those found in the Sanger sequence in the corresponding region. Variants outside of the Sanger sequenced region were omitted. If a variant also occurred in the Sanger sequencing, it was considered a true positive; if not, it was considered a false positive (assuming that Sanger sequencing has the highest possible accuracy). Sanger-based variants that did not occur in the investigated sample were considered false negatives. Let TP, FP, and FN be the respective numbers of true positives, false positives, and false negatives across all samples. We defined precision as the fraction TP/(TP + FP) of true positives among all predicted variants and recall as the fraction TP/(TP + FN) of true positives among all variants in the Sanger sequences. Obviously, the recall can drop with decreasing sequencing depth. More details on the sequencing depth necessary for proper lineage assignment can be found in Appendix Chap. 6. In general, we can conclude, that Pangolin and Kallisto perform equally well in case of nearly complete assemblies while the lineage prediction accuracy of Pangolin decreases with the of completeness of the assembly (Appendix Chap. 6, Figure A4).

As shown in Table  2 , the UnCoVar pipeline achieves outstanding precision and recall when using Sanger sequencing data as a true positive gold standard across three different in vitro technologies. Importantly, the precision always stays above the expectation of 0.95 defined by the controlled FDR of 0.05, indicating that the statistical model of Varlociraptor used in UnCoVar manages to properly assess the uncertainty in the data.

Comparison with other pipelines

We compared UnCoVar against other available state-of-the-art pipelines using the above-mentioned benchmark dataset (Table  3 ).

All but two of the pipelines achieved a precision and recall above 0.90. This represents a satisfactory result both for the software developers and for clinicians using the results from these pipelines. UnCoVar was the only pipeline that consistently achieved at least 0.97 for both precision and recall across the different in vitro platforms used. When measuring and comparing the execution time to produce variant callings between all considered workflows (average of the individual processing time for all 54 samples), UnCoVar was the fastest for one and close to the compared other pipelines in the other Illumina in vitro approach. A more detailed view of the run times of UnCoVar with differing sequencing depths can be found in Appendix Chap. 2. For Oxford Nanopore data, UnCoVar is one of two pipelines capable of processing such samples without errors at the time of writing, with perfect precision and recall rates and the quickest average execution time measured for all 54 samples. We note that we cannot guarantee overall correct usage of the other software products and executed the compared workflows based on the available documentation. Any bugs that occurred were reported to the original authors. An overview of the tested pipelines and reasons for exclusion can be found in the appendix (Appendix Chap. 7, Table A1).

We posit that the presence of a vendor- and platform-agnostic gold standard for NGS data supported by non-NGS data will enable other groups to use the data for benchmarking their approaches.

We present UnCoVar, a fully automated, reproducible workflow for analyzing viral pathogen sequencing data. In addition, we present a thoroughly investigated gold standard benchmark dataset of 54 SARS-CoV-2 samples sequenced with multiple technologies. Using this dataset, we show that UnCoVar outperforms all other available analysis pipelines in terms of recall and precision. UnCoVar thereby manages to accurately control the false discovery rate using Varlociraptor [ 43 ].

By using a combination of Snakemake [ 26 ], Conda/Mamba, and Snakedeploy, the workflow is portable, reproducible, transparent, and adaptable to any viral pathogen. A combination of different state-of-the-art tools delivers a robust analysis that accepts sequencing products from a range of different instruments and protocols as input.

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, rapid viral mutations played a major role in increasing infection rates [ 12 , 59 , 60 , 61 ]. While other approaches [ 56 , 57 ] commonly use only one strategy for crucial steps in the analysis (e.g., de novo assembly or SNV-based consensus building), UnCoVar provides complementary functions for assembly, variant calling, genome reconstruction, and lineage identification. With the strength of using Varlociraptor and its powerful features for the probabilistic re-evaluation of identified mutations, we integrated a unique addition to conventional variant calling methods, as confident identification of SNVs and other mutations played a crucial role in pandemic surveillance. The widely used tool Pangolin for SARS-CoV-2 lineage assignment depends on accurate genome assembly, which UnCoVar achieves by automated SNV-based consensus building, integrated quality assurance and postprocessing of reconstructed genomes. While this is commonly achieved when sequencing patient samples, a lack of full-genome amplification and sequencing and therefore, incomplete genome assembly often occurs in the case of analyzing environmental – for example, wastewater – samples. Furthermore, evaluating known SARS-CoV-2 protein alterations and not being dependent on a fully reconstructed genome allows us to identify the occurrence of new virus variants through the exclusivity of specific mutations. By providing all these “belts and suspenders”, UnCoVar is a versatile all-in-one pipeline with considerable potential, not only for analyzing SARS-CoV-2 samples.

Future work will entail the potential addition of BUSCO [ 62 ] for assembly quality assessment. Moreover, we will investigate the use of pangenome references [ 63 ] for further improving contamination detection and reducing reference bias in read alignment.

We will work on updating the benchmark dataset with additional SARS-CoV-2 variants and attempt to include other sequencing platforms. As we continue to analyze patient-derived samples from our institution, we will maintain the SARS-CoV-2 analysis and include additional viral pathogens (RSV, influenza A and B) for analysis with UnCoVar. UnCoVar was efficiently employed for the characterization of SARS-CoV-2 variants from wastewater samples [ 64 ], and a prototypical module of UnCoVar was employed in a SARS-CoV-2 surveillance project at neighborhoods and city scales in the metropolitan Ruhr area of Germany (Thomas et al., in preparation).

Availability and requirements

Project name: UnCoVar.

Project home page: github.com/IKIM-Essen/uncovar .

Operating system(s): platform independent.

Programming language: Python.

Other requirements: Conda, Snakemake 6.9. or higher.

License: BSD-2-Clause License.

Any restrictions to use by non-academics: None.

Data availability

Sequence data that support the findings of this study have been deposited in the European Nucleotide Archive with the primary accession code PRJEB73579.

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/coronavirus-disease-(covid-19) .

Using Varlociraptor’s variant calling grammar: https://varlociraptor.github.io/docs/calling/#generic-variant-calling .

In line with criteria defined by the Robert-Koch-Institute, Germany: https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus/DESH/Qualitaetskriterien.pdf? __blob=publicationFile

http://www.w3.org/TR/html5 .

ethics vote #20-9512-BO.

Abbreviations

Coronavirus Disease 2019

Next-Generation Sequencing

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2

Variants of Concern

Single Nucleotide Variants

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Acknowledgements

We thank Felix Wiegand for his dedicated work on the visualization of the UnCoVar report. We would also like to thank Lena Kinzel and Cara-Lila van Bassewitz for their ongoing support in the development and improvement of UnCoVar.

This work was partially supported by the WBEready consortium (grant no. ZMII2-2523COR10A-E), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Health (Bundesministerium für Gesundheit, BMG), and by the SMITH-Medizininformatik-Konsortium-Nachwuchsgruppe Vorhersage von Sepsis auf Basis von Mikrobiomsequenzdaten (MicrobiomSepsisPred, grant no. 01ZZ2013) , funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF).

Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Author information

Alexander Thomas and Thomas Battenfeld Shared first authors.

Johannes Köster and Folker Meyer Shared last authors

Authors and Affiliations

Data Science Research Group, Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (IKIM), University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Alexander Thomas, Thomas Battenfeld, Ivana Kraiselburd, Ann-Kathrin Dörr, Adrian Dörr, Jule Gosch, Simon Magin, Pelin Yilmaz & Folker Meyer

Institute for Virology, University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Olympia Anastasiou, Ulf Dittmer, Carina Elsner, Vu Thuy Khanh Le-Trilling, Mirko Trilling & Lara Schöler

Institute for the Research on HIV & AIDS-associated Diseases, University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Vu Thuy Khanh Le-Trilling, René Scholtysik, Mirko Trilling & Lara Schöler

Institute of Cell Biology (Cancer Research), University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Lara Schöler

Bioinformatics and Computational Oncology, Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (IKIM), University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Johannes Köster

Division of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Department of Medical Oncology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

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Contributions

AT, TB, PY, JK, and FM conceived the study. AT, TB, JK, and SM implemented the workflow. AT, TB, IK, PY, MT, JK, and FM wrote the manuscript. AT and TB conducted the associated analyses. IK, SM, JG, FM, AD, OA, CE, LS, VL, RS, MT and UD generated the benchmark datasets in vitro. JK and FM supervised the work. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Folker Meyer .

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The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine at University Duisburg-Essen (Approval number 20-9512-BO). Informed written consent for participation and publication was given by all participants.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Thomas, A., Battenfeld, T., Kraiselburd, I. et al. UnCoVar: a reproducible and scalable workflow for transparent and robust virus variant calling and lineage assignment using SARS-CoV-2 as an example. BMC Genomics 25 , 647 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-024-10539-0

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Received : 04 April 2024

Accepted : 18 June 2024

Published : 28 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-024-10539-0

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