Standards commitments. Implementation licensing.
aiGUARD Systems engineers and develops the trust-stack architecture. This page records our binding FRAND undertaking for standards-essential patent claims, and our draft commercial framework for non-standards-essential implementation of the technology. Free for non-commercial implementers; paid licence for commercial parties.
Public undertaking on standards-essential patent claims.
aiGUARD Systems Limited makes the following undertaking in respect of any patent claim that becomes essential to a published standard. This commitment is unilateral, irrevocable, and in force from the date of this publication.
Where any claim of a patent owned or controlled by aiGUARD Systems Limited is determined to be essential to a published standard issued by BSI, ISO, IEC, ITU, ETSI, or an equivalent recognised standards body, aiGUARD Systems Limited undertakes to license such claim on Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms to any party implementing the standard, in accordance with the policies of the relevant standards body.
This undertaking is unilateral and binding on aiGUARD Systems Limited and any successor or assignee of the relevant rights. It is published in support of standards-body engagement on the patent-pending architectures underlying Synapse-ID™, aiGUARD™ (Thames Sentinel™), and aiGEC™, and is the licensing commitment referenced in our working paper AGS-PP-001 v1.0 (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20140622).
This undertaking applies only to patent claims that are essential to a relevant standard, that is, claims whose practice is required to implement the standard. It does not apply to patent claims that read on aiGUARD Systems products, deployments, or implementations outside the boundary of an essential standard claim. Commercial licensing of non-standards-essential claims is governed by the two-tier framework set out below.
Two-tier commercial licensing for non-standards-essential use.
For non-standards-essential implementation of our engineered trust-stack architectures, aiGUARD Systems Limited proposes a two-tier commercial framework. The model is set out here in draft. Final commercial terms, including the binding definition of "commercial use," will be ratified by qualified intellectual property counsel before this framework enters force.
The commercial framework on this page is a draft. The FRAND undertaking above is in force; the commercial framework below is not. Parties seeking interim commercial arrangements pending ratification should contact us directly.
Two tiers. One framework.
Implementation of the aiGUARD Systems trust stack is intended to follow a two-tier framework: non-commercial use is free under the terms of a community licence; commercial use requires a paid licence under standard commercial terms.
The intent of this model is to make the trust stack architectures available to the widest possible community of researchers, educators, independent developers, public-interest implementers, and non-commercial reference implementations, while ensuring that commercial parties deriving commercial gain from the architectures contribute to the continued development of the trust stack.
Tier comparison.
| Use case | Non-commercial tier | Commercial tier |
|---|---|---|
| Academic research | Free | , |
| University teaching & coursework | Free | , |
| Individual learning & experimentation | Free | , |
| Open-source reference implementations | Free, with conditions | , |
| Standards-body working drafts | Free | , |
| Public-interest implementations (defined narrowly) | Free, subject to assessment | , |
| Issuer / financial-services AI deployments | , | Commercial licence required |
| Subscription / SaaS deployments | , | Commercial licence required |
| Enterprise production deployments | , | Commercial licence required |
| Payment processor & payment network use | , | Commercial licence required |
| Systems integrator deployments to clients | , | Commercial licence required |
What "commercial use" means.
The definition below is a working draft. It will be the most legally exposed clause in the final licence and will be reviewed and ratified by qualified IP counsel before this policy enters force.
For the purposes of this policy, commercial use of any trust stack patent or technology means any use of the patent or technology that, directly or indirectly:
- generates revenue, profit, or financial gain for the implementer or for any third party benefiting from the implementer's activity;
- supports a product, service, or system that is sold, leased, licensed, or otherwise made available to third parties for consideration, whether monetary or in kind;
- supports the operations of an enterprise, governmental body, or organisation in the conduct of revenue-generating activity, including but not limited to financial services, payment processing, subscription services, software-as-a-service, enterprise consulting, and systems integration;
- is integrated into, embedded within, or deployed alongside any product or service that competes with any product or service offered by aiGUARD Systems Limited or its affiliated commercial entities; or
- is undertaken by, on behalf of, or for the benefit of any party meeting the definition of a commercial entity, irrespective of the specific use case.
Non-commercial use
Non-commercial use means use that does not meet any criterion of the commercial use definition above. By way of example and without limitation, non-commercial use includes: academic research conducted within a university or recognised research institution where the output is published openly; university teaching, coursework, and student projects; individual learning, experimentation, and personal development; open-source reference implementations published under recognised open-source licences and not used in revenue-generating activity; technical contributions to standards bodies under their working group procedures; and clearly defined public-interest implementations (subject to confirmation by aiGUARD Systems Limited on a case-by-case basis).
Edge cases requiring case-by-case confirmation
Certain use cases sit between commercial and non-commercial in ways the categorical definitions cannot fully resolve. These are handled on a case-by-case basis through direct enquiry to aiGUARD Systems Limited. Examples include: public-sector deployments (NHS, government departments, regulators) where the deploying body is not commercial but the AI service may displace commercial activity; academic spin-out companies in their pre-commercialisation phase; charities and non-profits operating revenue-generating activities; and hybrid deployments where commercial and non-commercial activities share infrastructure.
Procedure.
Non-commercial licence
Non-commercial users may operate under a community licence published by aiGUARD Systems Limited. The community licence will be published as a standalone document. It will be granted on a click-through registration basis (no fee, no contract negotiation). Once registered, non-commercial users obtain the right to implement, study, modify, and share the trust stack architectures within the scope of the community licence terms.
Commercial licence
Commercial users contract directly with aiGUARD Systems Limited for a commercial licence. Commercial licensing engagements are scoped per partner and typically include: technical briefing under NDA; agreement on deployment scope; agreement on licence fee structure (one-off, recurring, or revenue-share); deployment support; and ongoing access to updates and successor patents.
FRAND-essential claims
Where a patent claim is determined to be essential to a published standard, that claim is licensed under the FRAND undertaking set out at the top of this page. The FRAND undertaking operates in parallel to, and not in displacement of, this commercial licensing framework. Implementers of an applicable standard obtain a FRAND licence on the essential claim; use of trust stack technology outside the boundary of an essential standard claim remains subject to the commercial framework.
What this draft does not yet finalise.
The following items are intentionally left open in the draft commercial framework and will be finalised in consultation with intellectual property counsel before ratification:
- The precise legal form of the community licence (recognised open-source licence variant, bespoke common licence, or hybrid)
- The treatment of derivative works produced under the community licence
- The mechanism for transitioning a non-commercial user to a commercial licence on commercialisation of their work
- The fee structure and bands for the commercial tier
- The governing law and dispute resolution forum
- The interaction with PCT international filings and national-phase entry
- The treatment of compulsory licensing under EU, UK, or other national law
Engage on licensing.
Parties wishing to obtain an interim commercial licence, comment on the draft framework, raise a FRAND essentiality determination, or discuss any other licensing matter are invited to make contact.
Contact us