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MKL License: Limited patent license

NikoF
Novice
1,874 Views

Hi,

  we are planing to distribute an application that is using MKL and plan to redistribute the MKL dll together with our app.

  I did read the FAQ and earlier posts which make clear that redistribution is very liberal (thank you Intel!). However, we still wonder about the limited patent license that is part of the Simplified Software License (ISSL) under which the MKL is distributed:

Limited patent license.  Intel grants you a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license under patents it now or hereafter owns or controls to make, have made, use, import, offer to sell and sell (“Utilize”) this Software, but solely to the extent that any such patent is necessary to Utilize the Software alone. The patent license shall not apply to any combinations which include this software.  No hardware per se is licensed hereunder.

  Could you please clarify what this means in our use case? In particular, would our app need a patent license from Intel if it links dynamically to the MKL dll? Or do you consider dynamic linking not a "combination which include this software"? Does this clause impose any additional constraints on us that are not covered under "redistribution"? In other words, are we free to distribute our app together with the MKL dll but still need to contact Intel about patent licensing?

  Thanks for your support and clarification,

   Niko

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1 Solution
NikoF
Novice
1,620 Views

Excellent, thank you very much for the clear answer. This will help us (and hopefully other users) in using MKL without worries. Thanks!

View solution in original post

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9 Replies
ArpanB_Intel
Moderator
1,823 Views

Hi Nikolaus, unfortunately we will not be able to interpret the usage of the licenses in relation to the agreement. Please contact your legal department to ensure that your usage matches the terms and clauses stated in the agreement.


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NikoF
Novice
1,811 Views

Thank you for your reply. I am aware that my question is somewhat out of scope for this user forum and will need legal review. But could you please provide a contact of your legal team? It is often hard to find the right contact person in a big organization such as Intel. That would be apprecheated!

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ArpanB_Intel
Moderator
1,803 Views

Nikolaus, you would have to contact your organization's legal department as they would be able to let you know whether your usage aligns with the terms of the agreement.


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NikoF
Novice
1,756 Views

I already did ask my legal department and they told me to get confirmation from Intel because the wording is ambigous in their view. That's why I did ask this question here. I think what I need to resolve this legal dead lock is a confirmation on the technical question if dynamic linking of the MKL is considered an inclusion or just a side-by-side redistribution. If you could confirm that dynamic linking is no inclusion in the sense of the ISSL but only a redistribution, then everything is easy.

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ArpanB_Intel
Moderator
1,750 Views

Nikolaus, thank you for getting back to us.


We will have to contact our internal team for further support on this query. We hope to get back to you within 2-3 business days with an update.


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NikoF
Novice
1,702 Views
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Ruqiu_C_Intel
Moderator
1,645 Views

 Hi NikoF,

 

Thanks for your waiting.

For your questions, in short, You are free to redistribute MKL with your app and do not need a separate license from Intel.

 

Regards,

Ruqiu

 

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NikoF
Novice
1,621 Views

Excellent, thank you very much for the clear answer. This will help us (and hopefully other users) in using MKL without worries. Thanks!

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Ruqiu_C_Intel
Moderator
1,591 Views

We are closing this thread for now. If you require any additional assistance from Intel, please start a new thread. Any further interaction in this thread will be considered community only.

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