Perpetual Licence Terms
What a bought-out licence grants: what belongs to the client, what stays with us, and what belongs to somebody else.
Effective 15 July 2026
These are the standard terms we start from. The terms that actually apply are those in the contract for your engagement.
The grant
On payment of the licence fee in full, GIPSIC grants the client a licence to use the delivered software that is:
- perpetual — it does not expire and is not tied to renewing support;
- non-exclusive — GIPSIC may build similar work for others;
- internal — covering the client and the affiliates named in the contract;
- non-transferable — except with GIPSIC's written consent.
The scope of use — user numbers, sites, devices, or the number of environments it may be installed in — is as stated in the contract. The scope that applies is the one stated in that engagement's contract.
What you may do
- Use the system to run your own business, for as long as you like.
- Install it in test and standby environments, up to the number agreed.
- Take backup copies for disaster recovery.
What you may not do, unless agreed otherwise
- Resell, rent, sub-licence, or offer the software commercially to third parties.
- Reverse engineer it to build a competing product.
- Remove or obscure copyright notices in the code or documentation.
Ownership
The client owns: all data in the system, the content the client puts into it, and the organisation's own configuration.
GIPSIC retains: its tools, internal libraries, templates, and the general know-how it applies across engagements. A licence to use is not a transfer of these.
Where an engagement is agreed to assign copyright in the source code to the client outright, that is stated explicitly in that contract and is priced differently from a licence.
Source code
A perpetual licence does not include source code delivery by default. Where an engagement agrees to deliver source, or to place it in escrow, the terms and the release conditions are set out in that contract.
Third-party components
Delivered systems include open source and commercial software from other vendors. Those components are governed by their own owners' licences, not by this document. GIPSIC provides a list of components and their licences on delivery.
Fees for third-party commercial software or cloud services are the client's, unless stated otherwise.
Support and updates
A perpetual licence covers use of the version delivered. It does not automatically include updates, security fixes, or support for new environments; those fall under a maintenance contract — see the Service Level Agreement.
Not renewing support does not end the licence. The system keeps running.
Termination
The licence ends if the client materially breaches these terms and does not remedy the breach within the period stated in the contract of written notice.