The Intel BSD + Patent License has been written to provide maximum flexibility to the recipient, as it does not require the recipient to use a particular license for the recipient's derivative software (unlike the GPL), nor does it require the recipient to grant any patent licenses to the recipient's derivative software (unlike the CPL). 

In addition, the Intel BSD + Patent license (unlike the BSD license) grants a patent license from Intel not only to Intel's InfiniBand™ System Software itself, but also to any Intel patent claims that might cover corrections made by the recipient to that software to allow it to run on Linux, and to Intel patent claims that might cover a combination of that software with Linux.

The text of the Intel BSD + Patent license follows:

"Recipient has requested a license and Intel Corporation ("Intel") is willing to grant a license for the software entitled InfiniBand(tm) System Software (the "Software") being provided by Intel Corporation.

The following definitions apply to this License:

"Licensed Patents" means patent claims licensable by Intel Corporation which are necessarily infringed by the use or sale of the Software alone or when combined with the operating system referred to below.

"Recipient" means the party to whom Intel delivers this Software.

"Licensee" means Recipient and those third parties that receive a license to any operating system available under the GNU Public License version 2.0 or later.

Copyright (c) 1996-2002 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

The license is provided to Recipient and Recipient's Licensees under the following terms.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms of the Software, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following three conditions are met:

1)  Redistributions of source code of the Software may retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2)  Redistributions in binary form of the Software may reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

3)  Neither the name of Intel Corporation nor the names of its contributors shall be used to endorse or promote products derived from this Software without specific prior written permission.

Intel hereby grants Recipient and Licensees a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free patent license under Licensed Patents to make, use, sell, offer to sell, import and otherwise transfer the Software, if any, in source code and object code form. This license shall include changes to the Software that are error corrections or other minor changes to the Software that do not add functionality or features when the Software is incorporated in any version of a operating system that has been distributed under the GNU General Public License 2.0 or later. This patent license shall also apply to the combination of the Software and any operating system licensed under the GNU Public License version 2.0 or later if, at the time Intel provides the Software to Recipient, such addition of the Software to the then publicly available versions of such operating system available under the GNU Public License version 2.0 or later (whether in gold, beta or alpha form) causes such combination to be covered by the Licensed Patents. The patent license shall not apply to any other combinations which include the Software. No hardware per se is licensed hereunder.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL INTEL OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE."