TIP Community License v1.0

1.Preamble

This License governs the TIP Protocol Reference Implementation authored by Dinesh Mendhe and owned by The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc. (“The AI Lab”). The Protocol Specification is separately licensed under CC-BY 4.0 and is unaffected by this License.

The AI Lab holds the following principles:

• Open protocols create stronger ecosystems.
• Attribution is a structural truth, not a courtesy.
• Commercial enterprises building revenue on this technology should help sustain it.
• Individuals, journalists, nonprofits, and governments should never face a paywall to participate in a public-interest trust protocol.

2.Free Use, Who Qualifies

You qualify for Free Use if you are:

1. An individual person (any income level).
2. A business with Annual Gross Revenue under USD $100,000, measured worldwide and across all affiliates under common control. See Section 3 for how this is determined.
3. A nonprofit, NGO, or tax-exempt charity (any size).
4. A university, college, or educational institution (any size).
5. A government entity (any size).
6. A journalism organization or individual journalist (any size), when used solely for editorial identity and provenance purposes.
7. Using the Software only for internal research and development or testing (any organization size).

3.Commercial License Requirement

Any use that does not qualify as Free Use requires a Commercial License. Contact [email protected] to obtain one.

Income groups follow the World Bank Country and Lending Groups classification. The high-income column is the base rate. Scaling reduces a fee, never raises one.

How your tier and your rate are determined.

1. Annual Gross Revenue means your total worldwide gross revenue from all sources for your most recently completed fiscal year. It is gross, not net income, and it is not limited to revenue you attribute to TIP. Revenue is counted across the whole group: any parent, subsidiary, or entity under common control is included.
2. Income group means the World Bank classification (high, upper-middle, lower-middle, or low income) of your country of principal place of business, taken from the World Bank Country and Lending Groups list current on the date your license is issued or renewed.
3. Country of principal place of business means where you are actually headquartered and managed. It is not your country of incorporation, not the seat of a holding company, and not the address of a branch or sales office. A group under common control is classified by the income group of its ultimate parent.
4. Currency. All fees are stated and payable in United States dollars. Where local law requires payment in another currency, conversion uses the European Central Bank euro reference rate cross-published for USD on the invoice date.
5. Scaling ceiling. Income-group scaling applies only below USD $25,000,000 of Annual Gross Revenue. At $25M and above, one rate applies worldwide.

Fees of USD $250 or less are self-serve: payable annually in advance by card at the point of licensing. The AI Lab does not issue invoices, accept purchase orders, or extend net terms at that level, because the administrative cost of collection would exceed the fee itself and the fee exists to establish that commercial use is licensed, not to raise money.

The Commercial License includes a patent license for The AI Lab’s essential patent claims covering TIP Protocol inventions.

4.Attribution, Mandatory in All Cases

Every implementation, whether Free or Commercial, must display the following attribution:

“Built on TIP Protocol by The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc. (theailab.org) | Licensed under TIPCL-1.0”

Acceptable formats:

5.Notice File, Required in All Distributions

Include the following NOTICE file verbatim in all distributions of the Software:

TIP Protocol | Copyright 2026 The AI Lab Intelligence
Unobscured, Inc. | Authored by Dinesh Mendhe
theailab.org | Licensed under TIPCL-1.0
TIP™, AI Trust ID™, AI Trust Registry™ are trademarks of
The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc.

6.Restrictions, Absolute (Free and Commercial)

The following restrictions apply to all licensees, regardless of Free Use or Commercial status. You may not:

1. Remove or alter the NOTICE file.
2. Use TIP™, AI Trust ID™, AI Trust Registry™, or confusingly similar marks without a separate trademark license.
3. Issue AI Trust ID™ Seals yourself. Seals are registry-issued only.
4. Claim that The AI Lab endorses your product.
5. Run a private fork claiming to be the TIP™ network.
6. Sub-license commercial rights to third parties.

7.Conversion to Apache 2.0 (January 1, 2031)

On January 1, 2031, this License converts to the Apache License 2.0. After that date, commercial use no longer requires a paid license.

8.Patents

Free Use includes a royalty-free patent license for compliant implementations. The Commercial License includes a broader patent license covering additional use cases.

9.Governing Law

This License is governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA. Disputes shall be resolved by arbitration administered by JAMS in Wilmington, Delaware.