End-User License Agreement (EULA)

NextPDF Commercial License Agreement — Version 3.0, effective 2026-06-30

This End-User License Agreement (“EULA”) governs your use of the commercial editions of the NextPDF software — NextPDF Pro and NextPDF Enterprise — published by PATEON NETWORK TECHNOLOGY INCORPORATED (“PATEON”, “we”), a company registered in Taiwan (R.O.C.).

This page is a convenience rendering — not the controlling text. The single authoritative, controlling text of the NextPDF Commercial License Agreement (Version 3.0, effective 2026-06-30) is the LICENSE that ships with the NextPDF Premium software. This page — like the licensing documentation — is a non-authoritative summary that reproduces the key terms for convenience; in the event of any conflict, that controlling LICENSE text and your order-specific Schedule govern.

What this covers. NextPDF Core and Connect are free and open source under the Apache License 2.0 and are not governed by this EULA (the Spectrum acceleration component is separately licensed under LGPL-3.0-or-later). This EULA applies to the paid Pro and Enterprise editions.

1. Acceptance

You accept this EULA and the Commercial License when you purchase, download, install, or use a commercial edition. If you are accepting on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind it. If you do not agree, do not install or use the software.

This EULA is your licence to use the software; it is not the purchase contract. Your purchase is concluded with our Merchant of Record (our authorised reseller and the seller of record), who takes payment and issues your invoice — see the Terms of Use and Refund Policy. This EULA and the Refund Policy are made available for your review and are accepted before payment. PATEON does not itself take payment from, or issue invoices to, buyers.

2. Editions and delivery modes

NextPDF commercial editions are delivered in two modes, and both convey identical license rights:

Encoding is artifact protection only. It does not reduce, expand, or otherwise change the rights granted under your license; the same entitlement model and Schedule apply to both modes. The 14-day Trial is always delivered encoded (ionCube), time-limited, and watermarked.

3. License grant

Subject to payment of the applicable fees and compliance with this EULA, PATEON grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide license to use, modify, and incorporate the licensed edition into your own applications, limited to the number of Applications and/or Environments stated in your Schedule. An “Application” is a single, functionally distinct software system; development, staging, and production of the same codebase count as one Application unless the Schedule states otherwise. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

4. Tier scope

Plans, prices, and what each tier includes are published on the pricing page and fixed by your Schedule. The defining usage scope of each tier is:

• Trial — a 14-day evaluation that unlocks the full Enterprise feature set for a single evaluation install. Output carries a non-removable watermark and may not be used in production or for any commercial purpose. The trial converts to a paid plan by key swap; see §6.
• Solo — licenses one Application; the purchaser must be the end user of that Application, which is for the licensee’s own internal business use. Solo may not be used to operate a SaaS, multi-tenant, or service-bureau offering (see §5 and the worked examples below).
• Pro — licensed per organization, covering unlimited internal projects of that organization.
• Enterprise — licensed per project or per organization (unlimited projects) as stated in the Schedule, delivered as signed source with this EULA.

The bright line: internal use vs service offering

The distinction is whose documents you process and whether you expose NextPDF as a service:

• Permitted: producing PDFs that are the output of your own application — including documents your application sends to your own customers (invoices, quotes, tickets, statements). An internal business app emailing its own customers their invoices is permitted on Solo.
• Not permitted by default on any tier — requires an authorizing Schedule: exposing PDF generate / render / convert / sign functionality as a service or API to third parties, operating a multi-tenant SaaS, or generating, converting, or signing documents for third parties as the service you provide. This requires a Pro or Enterprise Schedule that expressly authorizes hosted or service use (see §5). Agencies license in the client’s name.

5. Restrictions

You may not, except as expressly permitted by your Schedule (these mirror the Commercial License §4):

1. redistribute the software as a standalone library, package, SDK, or development tool;
2. sublicense, rent, or lease the software, except as embedded in your own integrated product;
3. share one license across multiple unrelated Applications (each distinct Application needs a license);
4. operate a hosted, managed, or SaaS service to third parties whose primary value is PDF generation or manipulation powered by the software, unless your Schedule authorizes it;
5. use the software to build, market, or distribute a competing PDF library, engine, SDK, or service;
6. reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or de-obfuscate the software, or circumvent the ionCube technological protection measure on the encoded artifact — except to the extent mandatory law expressly permits and cannot be excluded by contract (including decompilation for interoperability and the observe / study / test rights under EU Directive 2009/24/EC, the interoperability exception in 17 U.S.C. §1201(f), and Article 80-2(3) of the Copyright Act of the Republic of China), as preserved in the Commercial License §4.6;
7. publish performance benchmarks or comparative analyses without our prior written consent (internal evaluation is fine);
8. circumvent, disable, or tamper with trial expiry, watermarking, or license-enforcement mechanisms;
9. store the signed-source artifact in any publicly accessible repository or file-sharing service;
10. remove or alter any copyright, license, or rights-management notice, or expose the software’s functionality through an API to unlicensed third parties or copy its API structure to substitute for it.

Enterprise Order Form terms. Certain additional terms — independent audit and true-up, a post-termination (12-month) competing-use restriction, assignment of feedback, and detailed export and sanctions undertakings — apply only to Enterprise licensees and only where an Enterprise Order Form incorporating them is executed. Self-serve Solo and Pro purchases are not bound by these Order-Form terms (Commercial License §15.11).

6. Trial terms

The Trial is a time-limited, encoded, watermarked evaluation of the full Enterprise feature set for a single install. It enforces a hard, server-validated expiry and is for evaluation only. At the end of the Trial the license terminates automatically. Converting to a paid plan is done by key swap; the conversion screen identifies which features you used so you can choose the right tier.

Because this Trial gives you a risk-free opportunity to evaluate the full software before paying — whether you use it is your choice — purchases are final. Refunds are limited to your statutory rights and the Merchant of Record’s discretion, as set out in §10 and the Refund Policy; we do not offer discretionary or change-of-mind refunds.

7. Ownership

All right, title, and interest in the software, including all intellectual property rights, remain with PATEON; the software, including its structure, organization, and source code, comprises PATEON’s trade secrets. Content, templates, and configurations you create with the software remain yours.

The signed-source edition is provided as confidential information and a trade secret: your ability to read the source confers no right to copy, redistribute, disclose, or reverse engineer it beyond what this license expressly grants. You may modify the source for your own non-competing integrated product and distribute that product in compiled form only; you may not redistribute or disclose the source (modified or unmodified) in source form. See the Commercial License §§2.6–2.7, 3.2, 5, and 7.

The NextPDF name and prism mark are trademarks of PATEON and are not licensed by this EULA; see the trademark guidance.

8. Updates, maintenance, and perpetual licenses

Annual subscriptions include updates within the licensed scope. Perpetual (“buyout”) options, where offered, cover the current major version only; a future major version requires a new purchase. Maintenance terms and any perpetual availability are described on the pricing page and fixed by your Schedule. For Enterprise, active maintenance is required to keep the conformance-related warranty current; on lapse the license continues but the warranty downgrades to “as-shipped”, without a current trust-list or algorithm warranty.

9. Warranty and liability

The software is provided “as is” as described in the Commercial License §11, and liability is limited as described in §12 (aggregate liability capped at the fees paid in the preceding twelve months; no indirect or consequential damages). Nothing in this EULA excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law, and your mandatory statutory consumer rights are preserved — see §11.

10. Refunds

Software licenses are digital content delivered immediately and all sales are final. Fees are non-refundable except for (a) your non-waivable statutory consumer rights (see §11) and (b) any refund our Merchant of Record is required to make, or chooses to make at its discretion, under its buyer terms. We do not offer discretionary, goodwill, or change-of-mind refunds — you can evaluate the full software free for 14 days before buying (§6). Faulty or non-conforming software is first brought into conformity, with a price reduction or refund only where your statutory rights require it. Full details — the EU/EEA/UK withdrawal mechanism, the Australian consumer guarantees, and how to claim — are in the Refund Policy.

11. Term, termination, and statutory rights

This EULA is effective until terminated. It terminates automatically if you breach it; the post- termination obligations in the Commercial License §14 apply. Termination for a restriction breach (§5) does not permit continued operation. Where you deal as a consumer, your non-waivable statutory rights apply regardless of the disclaimers above — including, in the EU/EEA, the remedies for non-conforming digital content under the Digital Content Directive (EU) 2019/770 (having the content brought into conformity, a proportionate price reduction, or termination), exercisable within the applicable statutory liability period.

12. Governing law

This EULA and the Commercial License are governed by the laws of Taiwan (R.O.C.). For business licensees, disputes are resolved by binding arbitration before the Chinese Arbitration Association, Taipei (CAA), seated in Taipei, with judgment enforceable in the Taipei District Court (臺灣臺北地方法院). If you deal as a consumer, this arbitration and exclusive-forum clause does not apply to the extent your local law provides otherwise: the mandatory consumer-protection provisions, competent courts, and remedies of your country of habitual residence are not overridden and prevail over this clause.

Contact

Licensing and legal: [email protected]. Product questions: see the contact page.