Multiple Licensing Documents Merged into Product Terms

The two main repositories of Microsoft Volume Licensing information—the quarterly Product Use Rights and the monthly Product List—are being retired in favor of a new monthly Product Terms document starting in July 2015. The streamlining of the two documents into one with simplified organization should make it somewhat easier for customers to find licensing information and rules. Although Microsoft indicates its intent was merely to centralize and simplify the presentation of existing rules, some information can still be challenging to find, and people familiar with the older documents will have to adapt to the format of the new document.

Part of Licensing Program Evolution

Microsoft promotes the new Product Terms document as another step in the company’s ongoing efforts to improve the clarity, consistency, and brevity of licensing contracts and documentation.

The new Product Terms document essentially starts by taking the general information about the availability of the products and services from the Product List, which was published monthly, and merges it with the use rights information from the Product Use Rights (PUR) document, historically published quarterly. The resulting Product Terms document will inherit the Product List’s monthly publication schedule and be available in the same 35-plus languages as the PUR.