Licensing
AIEP is the only complete, production-grade, cryptographically verifiable AI governance protocol in existence. It is fully specified. Fully implemented. Fully deployable today. It is not for sale to a single party under any circumstances.
All intellectual property rights in the AIEP protocol — including all patent applications, trade secrets, and proprietary specifications — are owned by and vest exclusively in the Protocol Owner. Nothing on this page or elsewhere on this site constitutes a transfer or assignment of any intellectual property rights. Licences granted are non-exclusive unless expressly stated otherwise.
AIEP is protected by 26 patent applications — all registered with confirmed GB numbers (9 filed November 2025; 9 filed 07 April 2026; 6 filed 08 April 2026; 2 filed 11 April 2026). Open protocol adoption is always permitted. Commercial implementation of specifications under patent application requires a licence.
This page sets out the published licensing schedule. It is provided for information only and does not constitute an offer capable of acceptance. All licences are subject to execution of a formal written licence agreement.
What you are licensing
AIEP is an end-to-end AI governance protocol comprising seven layers, 137+ specifications, and working software across 22 repositories. It governs regulated AI deployments under applicable AI governance and regulatory frameworks globally.
26 patent applications — all registered (GB numbers confirmed). 171 specifications published Apache 2.0 — freely available as prior art and adoption surface. 7 trade secrets — calibration specifications retained by the Protocol Owner permanently. 1,955+ passing tests across all repositories. Canonical schema v3.0.0 locked.
The GENOME SDK provides two deployment paths: Native — architect a new AI-governed system with AIEP compliance as a structural property from the ground up. Retrofit — wrap any existing AI deployment in the AIEP compliance layer without architectural rebuild. Every AI system currently operating in a regulated jurisdiction that is not yet compliant is a retrofit candidate.
Open use — no licence required
171 specifications are published under the Apache License 2.0 as defensive prior art disclosures, each served at a stable crawlable URL. These may be implemented commercially without a licence agreement.
Browse all 171 open specifications →
The following reference repositories are Apache 2.0:
| Repository | Primary specs |
|---|---|
| aiep-mirror | P60, P61, P62, P63 |
| aiep-hub-validator | P60, P61, P62, P63 |
| aiep-well-known | P60, P61, P62, P63 |
| aiep-normaliser | P10, P17 |
| aiep-divergence-detector | P16 |
Use of these materials does not grant rights under any AIEP patent application or any rights beyond those expressly conferred by the Apache License 2.0. Implementations that also incorporate specifications under patent application require a separate licence for those elements. In the event of any conflict between the Apache License 2.0 and any AIEP patent application, the patent rights of the Protocol Owner are not diminished.
Standard licensing
Standard licences are non-exclusive, non-transferable (except as set out in the Chain of Title provisions), and granted for the territory and term specified in the executed licence agreement. All licences are governed by the applicable governing law.
Deposit filter
A non-refundable deposit is required before licence terms are issued. The deposit is credited in full against the first licence fee payment on execution of the licence agreement. Payment of a deposit does not create a binding agreement or an obligation to grant a licence. The deposit demonstrates serious commercial intent and covers the cost of due diligence and terms preparation.
| Organisation type | Deposit |
|---|---|
| Startup / SME | £5,000 |
| Mid-market | £25,000 |
| Large enterprise | £100,000 |
| Big lab / hardware strategic | £500,000 |
Licence tiers
All specifications within the licensed tier are delivered in full on execution of the licence agreement and receipt of cleared funds. No implementation support, integration assistance, or ongoing technical support is included. Support is available separately as paid consultation. All fees are quoted exclusive of VAT.
| Tier | Scope | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — Governed Substrate | Constitutional governance layer for internal AI deployments | £15,000 – £50,000 |
| Tier 2 — Compliance Certification | Tier 1 + regulatory compliance certification with CertificateHash generation per deployment | £75,000 – £250,000 per deployment |
| Tier 3 — Swarm Protocol | Tiers 1–2 + coordinator-free swarm consensus + hardware anonymisation | £200,000 – £500,000 |
| Tier 4 — Hardware | Per-device royalty for governance chip implementation in silicon. NDA required prior to specification access. | £0.50 – £2.00 per unit |
| Retrofit | Available at any tier for existing AI deployments | Tier rate applies |
The fees set out above are the published schedule rates. They are not subject to negotiation or discount. The Protocol Owner reserves the right to amend published schedule rates at any time. Rates applicable to an executed agreement are those specified in that agreement and are not affected by subsequent schedule amendments during the agreed term.
Tier 1 — Governed Substrate
£15,000 – £50,000 per year
The constitutional stack: dual-ledger memory substrate, recall divergence control, multi-cycle recall state, divergence detection, node fingerprinting, GoalVector stabilisation, self-model calibration, hierarchical planning, and meta-strategy selection.
In plain terms: the right to build and deploy a governed AI reasoning substrate that produces audit-grade evidence chains, deterministic recall, and constitutionally arbitrated planning in a commercial context.
Target: enterprise AI deployments requiring audit-grade evidence chains but not subject to formal regulatory certification — legal technology, financial data analytics, research platforms, enterprise reasoning infrastructure.
Tier 2 — Compliance Certification
£75,000 – £250,000 per deployment per year
Everything in Tier 1, plus the right to deploy an AIEP substrate that generates CertificateHash values — independently verifiable by regulators — asserting that AI reasoning output satisfies the traceability, auditability, and reproducibility requirements of named regulatory frameworks, without human review at the point of output.
| Framework | Scope |
|---|---|
| AI Act Article 12 | Transparency and record-keeping for high-risk AI systems |
| FCA PS7/23 | AI and machine learning model governance |
| FDA 21 CFR Part 11 | Electronic records — AI-assisted clinical decision support |
| NHS AI and Digital Regulations Service | NHS AI deployment requirements |
A single AI Act non-compliance fine for a high-risk AI system begins at €15,000,000 or 3% of global annual turnover. Tier 2 is priced as a fraction of that exposure, not as a software subscription.
Target: Healthcare institutions, financial services providers, pharmaceutical companies, insurance underwriters, government AI procurement.
Tier 3 — Swarm Protocol
£200,000 – £500,000 per year
Everything in Tiers 1 and 2, plus coordinator-free evidence-weighted swarm consensus, hardware-enforced swarm anonymisation (P91), and anticipatory branch surfacing.
The anonymisation property is categorical. The DeviceHardwareSecret lives inside the governance chip isolation enclave and is never accessible to software. No software instruction, operating system call, or network interception can recover the identifiable information from a swarm contribution. This cannot be replicated by any software-only architecture.
Target: cloud AI platforms, government AI infrastructure, multi-node research consortia.
Tier 4 — Hardware Specification
£0.50 – £2.00 per unit shipped (floor: 10 million units per year minimum commitment)
| Annual units | Rate per unit |
|---|---|
| 10M – 50M | £2.00 |
| 50M – 200M | £1.25 |
| 200M – 500M | £0.75 |
| 500M+ | £0.50 |
NDA required before specification access. Target: mobile SoC manufacturers, server and edge chip manufacturers, device manufacturers deploying AIEP-governed AI at hardware level.
Consultation
Paid only. Day rate on request. Strictly limited availability. Advance payment required before scheduling. Direct architectural guidance from the protocol’s designer. No account management. No ongoing support retainer. No exceptions.
Evaluation agreements
90-day evaluation at no cost, subject to mutual NDA, deployment restricted to internal non-production environments, and no commercial use of compliance certificates during evaluation.
Acquisition policy
AIEP is not currently available for acquisition.
This policy is absolute, unconditional, and not subject to negotiation, exception, or variation regardless of the consideration offered or the identity of the party making the approach. No person or entity has authority to vary this policy. Approaches that purport to be single-party acquisitions will not be acknowledged or engaged with.
A Joint Venture structure is available to qualifying parties at the appropriate stage of protocol adoption, as set out below.
The joint venture — twelve licences
The JV instrument is a perpetual conditional licence granted by the Protocol Owner. It is not, and shall not be construed as, a transfer, assignment, or disposal of any intellectual property rights. All intellectual property rights, including all patent applications and future patents granted thereon, remain the exclusive property of the Protocol Owner.
Ten commercial licences
| Category | Qualifying profile |
|---|---|
| Silicon / Hardware A | SoC manufacturer >100M annual unit shipments |
| Silicon / Hardware B | Second SoC manufacturer — different primary architecture |
| Cloud Infrastructure | Hyperscaler >$20B annual AI infrastructure revenue |
| Enterprise Software Platform | Platform >50,000 enterprise customers |
| Financial Services Infrastructure | Global financial infrastructure operator |
| Healthcare Infrastructure | Global health data or device infrastructure operator |
| Telecommunications | Global carrier >500M subscribers |
| AI Laboratory | Frontier model developer >$1B annual revenue |
| Regulated Sector Platform | Enterprise compliance platform, financial or government sectors |
| AI Governance, Safety & Alignment Infrastructure | Held by the Protocol Owner — released at sole discretion |
Two sovereign licences
| Category | Qualifying profile |
|---|---|
| Sovereign A | National government or supranational body — Western democratic bloc |
| Sovereign B | National government or supranational body — Eastern or emerging market bloc |
What licence holders receive
Subject to the ongoing licence conditions set out below, each JV licence holder receives:
- Permanent, royalty-free access to the full AIEP specification stack — 71 specifications across all five layers — for the duration of the licence
- Permanent, royalty-free access to the GENOME SDK at all tiers for the duration of the licence
- The right to deploy AIEP across all of the holder’s products, services, and jurisdictions without additional licence fee obligation, permanently and without volume limit, for the duration of the licence
- Governance participation rights as defined in the JV Governance Agreement executed at formation
- Consideration for an assured Phase 2 position, subject to demonstrated deployment commitment and governance alignment
All rights set out above are conditional on compliance with all licence conditions and cease immediately and automatically on any reversion trigger set out in the Insolvency Reversion clause.
The bid process
Licence awards are evaluated across four dimensions. Capital contribution alone is not sufficient to secure a licence. The Protocol Owner reserves absolute discretion to decline any application without giving reasons.
Deployment commitment — the volume of AIEP-governed deployments the party commits to achieve within 24 months of JV formation. This commitment is contractually binding and incorporated into the licence agreement. Financial penalties for non-delivery are set at formation and are not negotiable.
Distribution commitment — the specific channels through which the party will actively promote AIEP adoption within their existing customer and partner base. Distribution commitments are contractually binding.
Capital contribution — payment in full upon JV formation. No deferred consideration. No earnout. No contingent payments.
Governance commitment — unconditional and irrevocable acceptance of all licence conditions, including the sliding scale beneficial interest, insolvency reversion, chain of title requirements, ongoing governance funding obligations, derived IP obligations, and the authority of the Protocol Stewardship Committee.
The discussion fee
A non-refundable discussion fee is charged per session. It does not apply toward any licence consideration or deposit. Payment of the discussion fee creates no obligation to grant or offer a licence.
The discussion fee purchases a single private session with the AIEP protocol architect. The session covers: category assessment, deployment commitment guidance, a walkthrough of the applicable licence conditions, and a direct response to the specific question the party presents.
Availability is strictly limited to two sessions per week. Sessions are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis upon cleared payment. No session is scheduled until payment is confirmed.
To enquire about the discussion fee: [email protected] — Subject: JV DISCUSSION — [ORGANISATION NAME] — [CATEGORY]
Licence conditions
The following conditions attach to all JV licences at the moment of execution and bind the licence holder and all successors in title permanently. They are not subject to waiver, variation, or release except by express written agreement signed by the Protocol Owner.
Sliding scale — commercial licences
The Protocol Owner retains a beneficial interest in the proceeds of any disposal of a commercial JV licence. This beneficial interest is a pre-existing property right that attaches to the licence at execution. It is not a contractual penalty and does not require any act by the Protocol Owner to be enforceable.
| Year of disposal | Protocol Owner beneficial interest |
|---|---|
| Years 1–5 | 100% |
| Year 6 | 90% |
| Year 7 | 80% |
| Year 8 | 75% |
| Year 9 | 70% |
| Year 10 | 65% |
| Year 11 | 55% |
| Year 12 | 45% |
| Year 13 | 35% |
| Year 14 | 25% |
| Year 15 | 15% |
| Year 16 onwards | 0% |
Sliding scale — sovereign licences
| Year of disposal | Protocol Owner beneficial interest |
|---|---|
| Years 1–7 | 100% |
| Years 8–9 | 85% |
| Years 10–12 | 70% |
| Years 13–15 | 50% |
| Years 16–18 | 30% |
| Years 19–20 | 15% |
| Year 21 onwards | 0% |
After the sliding scale beneficial interest reaches zero, the financial beneficial interest expires. All structural, governance, and insolvency conditions set out in this section remain in full force permanently and are unaffected by the expiry of the financial beneficial interest.
Insolvency reversion
The JV licence is not, and shall not constitute, an asset of any insolvency estate. The reversionary interest of the Protocol Owner is a pre-existing property right that attaches to the licence at execution and runs with the licence in perpetuity regardless of the number of subsequent transfers.
Upon the occurrence of any reversion trigger, the licence returns to the Protocol Owner immediately and automatically, without any act or election required by the Protocol Owner, at its then-current market value.
Reversion triggers include:
- The commencement of insolvency, administration, receivership, or equivalent proceedings in any jurisdiction
- Ceasing to carry on business in the primary deployment category specified in the licence agreement
- A change of control of the licence holder without prior written consent of the Protocol Owner
- Any attempt to charge, mortgage, or otherwise encumber the licence without prior written consent of the Protocol Owner
Chain of title
No transfer of a JV licence is effective without a Chain of Title document countersigned by an authorised signatory of the Protocol Owner. Every transfer generates a CertificateHash recorded through AIEP-compliant infrastructure — cryptographically verifiable, appended to the dual ledger, and non-erasable. A purported transfer that does not comply with this requirement is void and of no effect.
JV governance and research
The Protocol Stewardship Committee is established under the JV Governance Agreement and has sole and unchallengeable authority over: the canonical schema, all specification amendments, PCT prosecution strategy, open source publication schedule, compatibility certification standards, and patent enforcement decisions globally. Decisions of the Protocol Stewardship Committee within these areas are binding on all licence holders and are not subject to challenge or appeal in any forum.
The Protocol Owner holds a permanent, non-rotating founding seat on the Protocol Stewardship Committee. This seat is non-transferable and non-dilutable without the unanimous written consent of all then-current licence holders and the Protocol Owner.
A minimum of 20% of the annual governance budget is permanently ringfenced for the AIEP Foundation. The AIEP Foundation’s mandate covers: independent AI safety research, philanthropic capacity building in developing jurisdictions, and the annual AIEP Governance Awards (£1M–£5M per category). This ringfence may not be reduced without unanimous consent of the Protocol Stewardship Committee.
Phase 2
Phase 1 governs tools. Phase 2 governs agents. Phase 1 assumes human-defined constitutional parameters. Phase 2 governs systems that may develop the capacity to redefine their own parameters.
Five Phase 2 positions are reserved for Phase 1 JV licence holders who demonstrate qualifying deployment commitment and governance alignment as assessed by the Protocol Stewardship Committee. Reservation of a Phase 2 position is not a guarantee of a Phase 2 licence and does not create any binding obligation. Seven Phase 2 positions remain open to new applicants. Phase 2 terms will be published separately at the appropriate stage.
Contact
Standard licensing and deposit payment: [email protected]
JV interest registration: [email protected] — Subject: JV INTEREST — [ORGANISATION NAME] — [CATEGORY]
Discussion fee session enquiry: [email protected] — Subject: JV DISCUSSION — [ORGANISATION NAME] — [CATEGORY]
Legal notice: This page is published for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, a binding offer, or a representation that any particular licence is available to any particular party. All figures quoted are exclusive of applicable taxes. The Protocol Owner reserves the right to amend this page at any time without notice.
See also: /patents · /certification · /architecture