A public licence for the DAP Standard schema: the taxonomy, its definitions, its coding grammar, its modules and rules, and the machine-readable artifact that expresses them. This is a separate instrument from the DAP Standard Corpus Licence, which covers the classification records produced using the Standard. This licence grants no rights in the Corpus.
Draft prepared 27 August 2026 for review by counsel before publication.
"Standard" means the DAP Standard as published by the Licensor under a numbered version, comprising the text of the standard document, the domain, sector, and segment hierarchy and every definition in it, the controlled vocabularies for asset forms, geography, themes, and risk, governance, and policy tags, the special modules and the multi-label rules, the coding grammar and versioning convention, and the worked examples.
"Schema" means the machine-readable expression of the Standard published by the Licensor as a companion artifact, in any format.
"Licensor" means Dartmouth Advisory Partners, Toronto, Canada.
"You" means any person or organisation exercising rights under this licence.
"Implementation" means any product, service, system, dataset, model, document, or process that applies, reads, stores, or emits classifications expressed in the Standard's codes and grammar.
"Extension" means any code, definition, tag, module, or rule You add to the Standard for Your own use, within the reserved namespace in section 4.
"Derivative Standard" means any classification scheme that modifies, rearranges, renames, or reissues the Standard's hierarchy, codes, definitions, or rules and is published, offered, or represented to any third party as a standard, taxonomy, or classification scheme, under any name.
"Corpus" means the classification records produced by the Licensor using the Standard, as defined in the DAP Standard Corpus Licence.
"Marks" means the names DAP Standard and Dartmouth Advisory Partners, the DAP monogram and symbol, and any other trademark of the Licensor.
Subject to the conditions in this licence, the Licensor grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual licence, for the version of the Standard You rely on, to:
a) reproduce, read, store, and distribute the Standard and the Schema, in whole or in part, in unmodified form;
b) build, operate, sell, and distribute Implementations, including commercial ones, including in competition with the Licensor;
c) apply the Standard to any entity and publish the resulting classifications, subject to section 3;
d) create and use Extensions under section 4;
e) translate the Standard into other languages and the Schema into other formats, provided the translation carries the notice in section 3 and identifies itself as a translation of a named version.
No permission, registration, or notice to the Licensor is required to exercise these rights.
Any reproduction of the Standard or the Schema, in whole or in part, carries:
DAP Standard [version]. Dartmouth Advisory Partners. https://dap.solutions/standard
Any published classification or set of classifications produced under the Standard carries
either the sentence "Classified under the DAP Standard [version]." or, in machine-readable
output, the version identifier in the std_version field of the record. Either form
satisfies this section.
A translation or format conversion states that it is a translation or conversion and names the version it was made from.
You may extend the Standard for Your own use. Every code You add must sit in the reserved
X- namespace, so that no extension can collide with a code the Licensor issues now or later:
X- followed by Your identifier, for example
X-ACME.01.01;F-X-, T-X-, R-X-, G-X-, or P-X- followed
by Your identifier;x-.Extensions are Yours. The Licensor claims no rights in them. An Extension may be shared with Your clients, counterparties, and vendors, and may be published as an extension to the Standard, provided it identifies itself as an Extension, names the version of the Standard it extends, and does not modify any code, definition, or rule the Licensor has issued.
You may propose an Extension for inclusion in the Standard through the governance process in Part 7 of the Standard. A proposal is a contribution under section 8.
You may not publish, offer, or represent to any third party a Derivative Standard. This includes reissuing the Standard's hierarchy under a different name, publishing a modified version of the hierarchy or definitions as a standard, or presenting an altered version as the DAP Standard.
This section does not restrict:
a) Implementations, however they present the Standard's codes to their users;
b) Extensions under section 4;
c) mappings or crosswalks between the Standard and any other scheme, provided the Standard's own codes and definitions are reproduced unmodified;
d) private modification for internal use that is never published, offered, or represented to a third party as a standard;
e) commentary, criticism, teaching, and research about the Standard.
The reason for this section is continuity. The Standard guarantees that a code, once issued, is never reassigned. Two schemes in circulation using the same codes for different meanings would break that guarantee for everyone who relies on it.
This licence covers the Standard and the Schema only. It grants no right of any kind in the Corpus. The Corpus is licensed separately under the DAP Standard Corpus Licence, and access to it requires an executed licence under that instrument.
Classifications You produce by applying the Standard yourself are Yours, subject to section 3. They are not part of the Corpus and this licence places no restriction on them beyond attribution.
The Marks are not licensed under this licence.
You may:
a) refer to the Standard by name to identify it;
b) state that an Implementation conforms to, implements, or classifies under the DAP Standard, naming the version;
c) reproduce the Marks where they appear in an unmodified copy of the Standard or Schema.
You may not:
d) use the Marks as, or as part of, the name or brand of Your own product, service, scheme, or organisation;
e) use the Marks in a way that states or implies that the Licensor endorses, certifies, sponsors, or is affiliated with You or Your Implementation;
f) use the Marks to describe a Derivative Standard.
Comment, dispute, and correction are invited through the governance process in Part 7 of the Standard. By submitting a proposal, finding, definition, example, or other contribution to the Licensor for consideration in the Standard, You grant the Licensor a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use, modify, and incorporate it into any version of the Standard and the Schema, and You confirm You have the right to grant that licence. Accepted contributions are recorded in the version's change log. Nothing in this section obliges the Licensor to accept a contribution or to attribute it beyond the change log.
THE STANDARD AND THE SCHEMA ARE PROVIDED "AS IS". THE LICENSOR MAKES NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THEIR ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, CURRENCY, MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
The Standard is versioned and published for review. A version marked "published for review" has not been adopted, and the Licensor makes no representation that it has been independently reviewed, tested for inter-rater agreement, or piloted, unless the version's own status section says so.
The Standard is a classification system. A classification is a description of what an entity is, produced by applying the Standard to facts as understood at the time of assignment. It is not investment advice, not a recommendation, not a valuation, and not a statement about the merit, risk, or suitability of any entity. Classifications change as facts change and as the Standard is revised. You are responsible for Your own decisions and for any decision made in reliance on a classification produced under the Standard.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE LICENSOR IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST OPPORTUNITY, OR INVESTMENT LOSS, ARISING FROM THE STANDARD, THE SCHEMA, OR ANY USE OF THEM, HOWEVER ARISING, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.
Nothing in this licence limits liability for fraud or for anything else that cannot be limited at law.
This licence is perpetual for each version of the Standard You rely on.
Your rights under this licence terminate automatically if You breach section 5 or section 7 and do not cure the breach within 30 days of written notice from the Licensor. Termination ends Your rights under section 2 for all versions. Classifications already produced and attributed under section 3 are unaffected.
Publication of a new version of the Standard does not terminate this licence for any earlier version. Retired codes remain resolvable through the forward maps the Standard publishes.
a) Versions of this licence. The Licensor may publish revised versions of this licence with a new version number. Each version of the Standard states which licence version applies to it. A revised licence does not apply to a version of the Standard published under an earlier licence.
b) No other rights. No rights are granted except as expressly stated. No patent licence is granted or implied.
c) Severance. If a provision is unenforceable, it is severed and the rest continues.
d) Governing law. The laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable in it. The parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Ontario.
e) Entire terms. This licence is the entire statement of the terms on which the Standard and the Schema are made available to the public.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dartmouth Advisory Partners. All rights reserved except as granted under this licence. DAP Standard™ and Dartmouth Advisory Partners™ are trademarks of Dartmouth Advisory Partners.