I'm afraid I can't speak to intellectual property law, but someone else may be able to. I work for Tyk though, and lead the team for this particular initiative. Thanks for your interest in it.

I can confirm that we do not - and will not ever - ask for any Intellectual Property rights, equity, or 'ROI', in return for the microgrant. The only thing we ask for is the opportunity to share the stories behind the projects we fund. And if winning applicants said no to that too, we'd be fine with that :)

Why are we doing this? We started as a side project ourselves. This new initiative is our way of paying it forward to help others working in their spare time to create open, innovative projects.

Appreciate the point your question raises, so I'll make sure our FAQs are updated to make our position on this clearer. Thank you! Tyk