Phaseout of Select Licensing Agreements

Different versions of Select License agreements will phase out in different years, with the staged retirement of the program to be concluded by the end of 2016. Shown here are lifetimes of the three most recent versions of Select Licensing agreements; the leftmost triangular sections indicate the period when the particular agreement version is used as the template for new deals. The remaining portion of each figure reflects the period when such an agreement may be in effect but no new agreements of this version may be signed.

Starting in Oct. 1, 2008, Microsoft began updating Select License contract templates, used for initiating new agreements, on a consistent annual schedule and labeling new templates with a version number corresponding to the year of introduction. For 90 days following the introduction of a new template, Microsoft continued to accept licensing agreements based on the prior version.

Select v. 2008 agreements could have been initiated between Oct. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009. As in years past, the agreements lasted for three years but contained a clause giving a customer the one-time option to renew the agreement for an additional one-year or three-year term, meaning that agreements could remain in effect for as long as six years. All Select v. 2008 agreements will expire by Dec. 31, 2015.