OpenRoots

ORD-2.2

A reseller or systems integrator being acquired, under ORD 2.2

Packages and resells software built by others. Your company is bought by a larger one, or you buy a Licensee. This resolves to the Canopy tier.

Tier

Canopy

Owed

A quarterly Canopy Report. Section 5.1 imposes a royalty only when the Canopy Licensee makes Production Use.

Sections in play

1.4, 1.8, 2.3, 3.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.4

Who and what

The situation being resolved.

Actor

A reseller or systems integrator

Packages and resells software built by others.

varies

Situation

Being acquired

Your company is bought by a larger one, or you buy a Licensee.

Rulings

3 questions resolved against the text.

clear

Which tier applies?

Canopy. Packages and resells software built by others. Section 5.2 reporting applies; the Section 5.1 royalty attaches when the Licensee makes Production Use and only to attributable revenue.

Sections 1.8, 3.1, 5.1

clear

Is anything owed?

A quarterly Canopy Report. Section 5.1 imposes a royalty only when the Canopy Licensee makes Production Use.

Sections 5.1, 5.2

clear

Is anything owed retroactively?

No. Section 5.4 states the obligation begins on the date the threshold is crossed and applies forward only. Rights already exercised are unaffected. On an acquisition, Section 1.4 aggregates entities under common control, so the acquirer's revenue is what counts from the closing date.

Sections 1.4, 5.4, 2.3

Cautions

What this situation gets wrong most often.

  • Section 1.7 excludes an entity acting as a reseller or intermediary for a Legal Entity above the threshold from the Root tier, even where its own revenue is small.

  • Section 8.3 of ORD requires a withdrawal of consent to propagate to any derivative you have distributed. Whether that is operationally achievable at depth is a published open question.

Same actor

Other situations for this party.