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Patent License

CipherExplain customers do not need a separate patent license. The product license at cipherexplain.com already covers PCT/IB2026/053405 for the licensed deployment. This page applies only to parties who are not CipherExplain customers and who implement the patented method in their own code (clean-room reimplementations, ports to other FHE libraries, hardware accelerators, OEM platforms).

bhdr-oss is offered under three independent licenses:

  1. AGPL-3.0-or-later — covers source code copyright. See LICENSE and LICENSING.md.
  2. VaultBytes Commercial License — paid, non-AGPL terms for the same source code. See LICENSE-COMMERCIAL.md.
  3. VaultBytes Patent License — paid license to the method claims of PCT/IB2026/053405, independent of which source code (this repository or an independent reimplementation) embodies them. This page describes that license.

Patent rights and copyright are independent. The AGPL license on this repository does not grant patent rights except to the minimum extent, if any, expressly required by AGPL-3.0 §11 itself. The VaultBytes Commercial License grants a covenant-not-to-sue scoped to the licensed bhdr-oss deployment but does not, by itself, grant freedom to assert the method in a clean-room reimplementation, a port to a different FHE library, or a hardware accelerator. For those cases, a standalone patent license is required.

Patent in scope

PCT/IB2026/053405 — System and Method for Computing Shapley Additive Explanations under Fully Homomorphic Encryption Using Compressed Coalition Sampling.

Patent status: PENDING (PCT national-phase entry pending).

The pending claims read on, among other things:

  • non-interactive single-server Kernel SHAP under CKKS,
  • compressed coalition sampling that admits a K-periodic replicate encoding,
  • BSGS-hoisted diagonal matrix-vector evaluation of the regression step,
  • low-rank M = U V decomposition of the Kernel SHAP regression operator under CKKS depth budgets,
  • and the offline M = (Zᵀ W Z)⁻¹ Zᵀ W generator pipeline that produces the deployed regression operator.

Final scope is set by the granted claims of each national-phase application. Until grant, the patent license is forward-looking and attaches automatically to the granted claims when issued in each designated jurisdiction.

Who needs a patent license

You need a patent license if any of the following apply:

  • You implement the patented method in code you wrote yourself (a clean-room reimplementation, a port to a different FHE library such as SEAL, HEAAN, or Lattigo, a GPU port, or a hardware accelerator) and you intend to use that implementation commercially.
  • You build a product, platform, or service that performs encrypted Kernel SHAP using compressed coalition sampling and BSGS-hoisted diagonal regression, regardless of which source code you started from.
  • You are an FHE library vendor, MLOps platform, or model-risk vendor who wants to ship the patented primitive as part of your product under your own branding.
  • You are a regulated-industry deployer (banking, insurance, medical-device, government) whose procurement function requires standalone patent assurance separable from the source code license.

You do not need a patent license to:

  • Cite the paper or reproduce its results in academic publications.
  • Run the unit tests, microbenchmarks, or evaluation in a sandbox under AGPL-3.0.
  • Operate an internal AGPL-compatible deployment of unmodified bhdr-oss strictly for non-commercial research, provided your use does not extend the patented method beyond what AGPL-3.0 §11 requires.

If your situation is unclear, contact b@vaultbytes.com before you deploy. A short written confirmation is free.

What the patent license grants

A patent license is a written agreement between VaultBytes Innovations Ltd and the licensee. Standard terms include:

  • A non-exclusive, worldwide, non-transferable license under PCT/IB2026/053405 (and any granted national-phase counterpart) to practice the licensed claims, scoped to the licensed field of use and the licensed deployment volume.
  • Optional field-of-use grants so a licensee in one industry (e.g. retail credit scoring) does not pay for fields it does not operate in (e.g. medical-device explainability).
  • Optional per-jurisdiction grants for licensees who operate only in specific PCT national-phase territories.
  • A covenant-not-to-sue for VaultBytes patents reading on the licensed field of use, regardless of which source code embodies the method, for the term of the license.
  • An option to upgrade to a combined source + patent license under LICENSE-COMMERCIAL.md if the licensee later decides to ship bhdr-oss itself rather than a reimplementation.

The exact scope, royalty model, term, audit rights, and termination triggers live in the signed master patent license agreement. This page is informational; nothing on it constitutes a binding offer.

Royalty models (indicative)

Royalty model is selected per-licensee based on deployment shape. Pricing is confirmed in writing per quote.

Model Target licensee Structure
Flat annual Single-jurisdiction enterprise deployment Fixed annual fee per field of use
Per-deployment Multi-tenant SaaS or platform vendor Annual fee per deployed environment, with volume tiers
Per-instance royalty OEM embedders shipping the method to end customers Royalty per shipped instance or per active customer
Revenue share Vendors whose product is built around the method Percentage of attributable product revenue, with floor
Patent-only standalone Licensees using a clean-room reimplementation Flat annual + per-jurisdiction multipliers

Field-of-use and per-jurisdiction multipliers apply on top of the selected model. Combined source + patent licenses receive a discount relative to taking the two licenses separately.

How to obtain a patent license

Email b@vaultbytes.com with:

  • Legal entity name, registered address, and country of incorporation.
  • A one-paragraph description of the implementation: which FHE library or hardware target, which fields of use you intend to operate in, which PCT national-phase jurisdictions you require, and approximate deployment volume.
  • Whether your implementation is a port of bhdr-oss, a clean-room reimplementation from the paper, or a hybrid.
  • Whether you also need a source code license under LICENSE-COMMERCIAL.md, or whether the patent license alone is sufficient.
  • Procurement contact and preferred contracting vehicle (direct, reseller, or marketplace).

Standard turnaround for a quote is five business days; patent quotes take longer than source-code quotes because field-of-use and jurisdiction scoping requires individual review. An evaluation patent license — free, time-limited, no production assertion — is available on request for active proof-of-concept work.

What this license does not do

  • It does not grant any rights to VaultBytes trademarks beyond reasonable nominative use ("implementation of the BHDR method").
  • It does not warrant that the patent will be granted in any specific jurisdiction. Royalty obligations attach only to claims that issue.
  • It does not constitute legal advice on whether your specific implementation reads on the claims. If you require a freedom-to- operate opinion, retain independent counsel.
  • It does not cover patents owned by third parties whose claims your implementation may also read on. The licensee is responsible for third-party freedom-to-operate.

Product (CipherExplain — patent rights bundled): cipherexplain.com Standalone patent licensing contact: b@vaultbytes.com