A modern, permissive open-source license designed for projects that want maximum freedom for users while adding a clear layer of patent protection. It builds on the simplicity of the classic BSD 2-Clause license but addresses one of the biggest risks in today’s software ecosystem: patent litigation.
From a landing page perspective, this license is a strong signal of trust, clarity, and business-friendly openness.
Why it stands out
Unlike many traditional open-source licenses that focus only on copyright permissions, the BSD-2-Clause Plus Patent License explicitly includes a patent grant and retaliation clause. In practical terms, this means contributors are not only sharing their code freely—they are also granting users protection against patent claims related to that code.
This is especially important in enterprise environments, where legal uncertainty can slow adoption. By choosing this license, a project immediately communicates: “You can use this safely in production, even at scale.”
Key advantages for projects and users
The license keeps the BSD philosophy intact: it is short, readable, and highly permissive. Developers can use, modify, distribute, and incorporate the code into proprietary systems with minimal restrictions. At the same time, the added patent language strengthens confidence for companies building commercial products on top of it.
This combination makes it particularly attractive for:
- Developer tools and libraries
- Infrastructure software
- SaaS backends and APIs
- Enterprise-ready open-source projects
Business and adoption benefits
For organizations evaluating open-source dependencies, legal ambiguity is often a dealbreaker. The BSD-2-Clause Plus Patent License reduces that friction. It encourages adoption by:
- Lowering legal review overhead
- Reducing fear of patent disputes from contributors
- Supporting integration into both open and closed-source ecosystems
In short, it preserves freedom while improving legal safety.
Bottom line
The BSD-2-Clause Plus Patent License is a refined evolution of a classic permissive license. It keeps everything developers love about BSD-style simplicity while adding meaningful patent protection that modern software ecosystems increasingly require.
For landing pages, it sends a powerful message:
“Simple to use. Safe to adopt. Ready for real-world, commercial-scale deployment.”
Copyright (c) <YEAR> <COPYRIGHT HOLDERS>
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Subject to the terms and conditions of this license, each copyright holder and contributor hereby grants to those receiving rights under this license a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except for failure to satisfy the conditions of this license) patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer this software, where such license applies only to those patent claims, already acquired or hereafter acquired, licensable by such copyright holder or contributor that are necessarily infringed by:
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- (b) combination of their Contribution(s) with the work of authorship to which such Contribution(s) was added by such copyright holder or contributor, if, at the time the Contribution is added, such addition causes such combination to be necessarily infringed. The patent license shall not apply to any other combinations which include the Contribution.
Except as expressly stated above, no rights or licenses from any copyright holder or contributor is granted under this license, whether expressly, by implication, estoppel or otherwise.
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