Licensing Philosophy
OpenEye licenses software in the following manner:
- Licenses allow unlimited usage (installed computers and platforms, simultaneous jobs, multiple processors, locally or in the cloud).
- Licenses may be
- annual or perpetual site-wide, allowing unlimited users at a specific site; they can be purchased ala carte; or
- annual, per-user package or annual, non-commercial package providing access to essentially all our application software,
- or annual per research group, non-commercial package.
- Per-user package prices and site-wide license prices are posted on our website. Everyone gets the same great deal, and we do not arbitrarily increase our quotes to fill your available budget.
- Non-commercial research licenses may be applied for by academic users at degree-granting institutions. They are free (without support).
- Short-term evaluation licenses are restricted only in how the results may be used.
- Standard licenses are intended for in-house drug-design. Contact us directly to work out terms for:
- Building 3rd party commercial software or databases on top of our toolkits or applications
- Using our software in a service capacity (e.g. CRO)
- Consulting, although it usually fits one of the above two categories
- We do not sell source code. We do sell programming toolkits for most of our algorithms.
OpenEye software licenses allow unlimited usage. That is, installation and use is allowed on unlimited computers and unlimited different hardware platforms, unlimited simultaneous jobs can be run, and unlimited processors can be used in parallel jobs. We do not believe in tokens and other arbitrary limits on software usage. If you have paid to use our software, we want you to get as much usage as possible out of it.
Site-wide licenses also allow unlimited users site-wide. Annual package licenses are limited to specific named users, but otherwise allow unlimited usage as described above.
OpenEye's a la carte software licenses are site-based. That is, they are intended for installation and use by scientists at a specified research location. Installation at one site for use by researchers at other sites is considered multiple sites and will be charged appropriately.
At a licensed research site, OpenEye software licenses allow unlimited usage including unlimited users.
OpenEye does offer perpetual licensing for its a la carte site-licenses. Perpetual licenses are purchased once and the software can continue to be used forever (or as long as there is hardware on which to run that version).
The initial purchase includes the first year of maintenance - technical support, software updates and ports to new hardware platforms. After the first year, maintenance is optional (paid at 18% of the current list price); however, unmaintained licenses are not entitled to support or new versions of the software or access to new hardware platforms.
Annual Package
It has been pointed out that the site-wide license model is not well suited to everyone. For those who work at a startup, where the focus is sometimes on surviving for the next year, multiple site-wide licenses hold little appeal. Further, for lone modelers, an unlimited-user license is also overkill. Those most penalized are the ones who realize they can do all their lead generation and optimization with pretty much only OpenEye software. So OpenEye offers a per-user package designed for small groups or companies that want to work from start to finish with OpenEye software.
We have also introduced a per-research group, non-commercial software package for academics, non-profits and government organizations whose work has a high potential in becoming a commercial product or intellectual property offered for commercial licensing. This was not an option in the past and some of our customers have elected this route to support their specific situation. See more information about Annual, Per-research group, Non-commercial Software Package.
The annual software packages include: BROOD, EON, FILTER, FRED, OMEGA, POSIT, QUACPAC, ROCS, SZMAP, SZYBKI, OEChem TK, VIDA & VIVANT. BROOD is an extremely fast application for bioisostere prediction. FILTER cleans the junk molecules out from a virtual ligand library. QUACPAC enumerates all the appropriate protonation and tautomer states and puts good charges on them. OMEGA does the necessary 3D conformer generation. ROCS and EON do ligand-based screening for shape and electrostatics. If there is protein-structure information, FRED does the docking. SZYBKI refines the structure of the best leads. VIDA browses all the results and creates visual content that VIVANT "publishes" in PowerPoint® or web pages. Along the way, OEChem TK helps with all the miscellaneous tasks.
OpenEye seeks to foster and support bona fide academic research. We endeavor to support academics as much as possible without compromising our own interests. To this end OpenEye provides Academic Licenses for non-commercial purposes at no cost and with no support.
OpenEye recognizes the complexity and diversity of academic and commercial activities among nominally academic institutions. Therefore, not all university research groups are eligible for no-cost Academic Licenses. Some governmental research groups, not-for-profit foundations and garage tinkers are eligible.
These licenses are intended only for research from which any resulting intellectual property remains in the public domain. Research that is intended to lead to a commercial product or intellectual-property royalties requires a standard (commercial) license or our Non-commercial Annual Package, regardless of the nature of the institution at which the research is completed.
Eligibility may differ among distinct research groups within a single institution, so we consider it on a research-group basis. If approved, use is only allowed within the research group of a specific principal investigator.
Eligibility is not permanent; it will be reevaluated periodically. In cases where an Academic License is granted, but research results are subsequently commercialized, the Licensee is required to purchase a standard license or the Non-commercial Annual Package.
For more details, please read the terms of the Academic License agreement. If you agree to the terms and wish to apply for an academic license, please select the appropriate button and then fill in the form that should automatically appear. We process academic applications as quickly as we can, but sometimes they can take a week or so to review. If you wish to explore our Non-commercial Annual Package, please contact business@eyesopen.com.
If you are interested in our software and think you might like to purchase it, but you want to make sure that it really works as well as word on the street would have it, you are welcome to evaluate the software. We provide short-term evaluation licenses for this purpose that are fully featured, rather than crippled demo versions of the software. The software may be installed and used throughout your site in an unlimited fashion - unlimited users, unlimited computers, unlimited processors in parallel jobs, and unlimited simultaneous jobs.
Remember that evaluation software may be used for evaluation purposes only. It is forbidden to make use results of the software for research purposes or for any purposes other than evaluation of the software. In the not uncommon event that, during the evaluation, your virtual screen finds a candidate that is in the corporate collection, and, although it was missed by HTS, proves to be active, you should immediately purchase a standard license agreement. It can be back dated and will supercede the evaluation agreement with respect to the intellectual property of the results.
To request an evaluation, please read the terms of the Evaluation Agreement. If you agree to the terms, select the appropriate button and then fill in the form that should automatically appear. You will then be contacted with appropriate instructions for downloading and installation, as well as the license key.
Please be aware that the license key will expire two months after it is generated, not two months from when the software is installed. So if you request an evaluation and then wait 6 weeks before trying out the software, the license key may seem to expire quickly.
OpenEye sells programming toolkits which give developers both high-level and low-level access to most of our state-of-the-art algorithms in the areas of molecular shape, electrostatics, structure generation and refinement and molecular data handling. While we release the toolkits, in part, for our customers to develop custom applications that better fit their work flow, it is clear that the toolkits have the most value to other commercial software developers. The world of molecular modelling is very broad, and there are numerous areas of application that we may never get around to addressing. Please contact us if you wish to sell software or databases built upon our toolkits or applications. We are willing to work out flexible and favorable terms.
Third-Party Developers, Consultants
OpenEye sells programming toolkits which give developers both high-level and low-level access to most of our state-of-the-art algorithms in the areas of molecular shape, electrostatics, structure generation and refinement and molecular data handling. While we release the toolkits, in part, for our customers to develop custom applications that better fit their work flow, it is clear that the toolkits have the most value to other commercial software developers. The world of molecular modelling is very broad, and there are numerous areas of application that we may never get around to addressing. Please contact us if you wish to sell software or databases built upon our toolkits or applications. We are willing to work out flexible and favorable terms.
OpenEye's standard license agreement stipulates that the software is to be used for in-house research or for research collaborations with third parties involving substantial activity other than use of the software. The standard agreement specifically excludes services such as contract modeling or database generation.
If you wish to use our software in a service capacity, there are a couple available options:
- Ensure that all your clients license the software, so that your contract research is covered under their license. Note that if you only do contract work and no in-house research, you may be able to use our software in this way without paying us a dime. This is probably easiest for consultants that have a small number of clients and can be done in several ways:
- They already have a license in which case everything is cool.
- You require them to buy a standard license directly from us.
- You purchase a site license for them and presumably pass the charge along to them in your pricing.
- Purchase a services license from us. This is best if you have a large number of clients, or if you feel it would be prohibitive to track the above. Services licenses typically cost more than the standard license, but the exact price depends upon the exact terms.
