SDK and SoftDevice licenses

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

haakonsh — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 15:50:18 GMT

Yes, you are correct.

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

Max — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 15:34:08 GMT

Yeah, The plan is to use it on a nrf51822 so it is for sure a Nordic product!

So, just to clarify and sumarize, there is no problem on using the SDK examples as a base, code over it to add functionality/performance, and then ship my product with a SoftDevice + that application flashed onto it, correct?

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

haakonsh — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 08:13:40 GMT

Hey Max,

You can ship your product with the SoftDevice and application.

Our SDKs used to have a "sub-optimal" licence agreement which actually prevented any customer from using any part of our SDK in their products. We have never pursued any legal action based on this SDK license because that would chase away all our customers. We have updated our license agreement to include 3-, 4- and 5-clause agreements for various examples that uses closed source libraries. The licenses states that you are only allowed to used our SD + SDK in a Nordic product, and that you are not allowed to modify or re-engineer closed sourced libraries and the SoftDevices.

The other guys who have answered are also correct :)

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

Max — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 13:01:20 GMT

Well my plan is to add a nrf51822 to a designed PCB with other stuff. Code from the SDK/SoftDevice will only be used in the NRF51822 and it will be part of a bigger product (keyboard) so I believe it complies?

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

Roger Clark — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:38:10 GMT

Read the SoftDevice license

"1. Grant of License Subject to the terms in this Agreement Nordic grants Licensee a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sub licensable, revocable license ("License"): (a) to use the SoftDevice solely in connection with a Nordic integrated circuit, and (b) to distribute the SoftDevice solely as integrated in Licensee Product. Licensee shall not use the SoftDevice for any purpose other than specifically authorized herein. It is a material breach of this agreement to use or modify the SoftDevice for use on any wireless connectivity integrated circuit other than a Nordic integrated circuit. "

So.. You can only use the SD in the Nordic MCU, and this has to be part of a "Product".

IMNAL, but I think this means you can't ship an MCU only with the SD on it. It needs to be part of a product i.e your software needs to also be on the nRF51822

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

Max — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:11:32 GMT

Converted this one to answer since it resumes the answer to my question.

I did indeed think it would be illogical to not be able to use SD in production, so this sums it up.

Thank you @endnode and @Roger Clark for answering me!

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

endnode — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:11:04 GMT

Yes, you can. if you wait few days Nordic will answer, alternatively set-up account on their "closed" support forum and submit ticket there (MyPage zone at their main website).

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

endnode — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:09:30 GMT

You definitely can ship product with SD flashed, otherwise no one would be able to use SD in production:)

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

Max — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:08:05 GMT

So if I sent my own pcb that has a NRF51822 incorporated, I could send it already flashed with the softdevice + my application and it wouldn't break any copyright or anything?

I just want to know for sure before wasting a lot of time onto this.

Anyway to get a Nordic employee to answer to this thread or just wait and be lucky?

My question is that I want to use the SoftDevice and the SDK to develop my own application to use on the NRF51822. The chip will be a NRF51822 from Nordic so I believe that as long as I keep SDK code to the NRF51822 which is a Nordic MCU I'm acting according to the SDK license. My problem is with the SoftDevice license.

So I can flash the SoftDevice + Application into the NRF51822 and sell it incorporated onto my product, correct?

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

Max — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:05:30 GMT

They are a bit difficult to understand, since I've seen people say that you can't ship stuff with the SoftDevice flashed.

I don't plan on releasing code, just flashing it and sending it shipped already flashed with the SoftDevice + Application.

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

endnode — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 09:24:08 GMT

I also don't see any hard time to find the licensing terms: they are enclosed to each Soft Device and SDK release, there is blog post on blog zone and there are several Q&S on this forum answered by Nordic team...

RE: SDK and SoftDevice licenses

Roger Clark — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 06:27:12 GMT

I can't speak for Nordic, but....

Is there any problem with selling the chip, as part of the product, already flashed with a softdevice + application ?

Yes. That is totally OK. Its what all commercial products that use the Nordic MCU's do. (apart from blank modules and experimenter kits etc)

I can't share headers/source code that uses SDK stuff. Do you mean your headers or Nordic's headers?

There is nothing to stop you sharing your own headers even if they reference Nordic headers.

You just can't ship the Nordic headers as part of your product. (at least not at the moment, though I know the license is in the process of changing)