Support and Upgrade Policy

What is the support policy for newly-licensed Bio‑Rad Informatics products?

Bio‑Rad Informatics will provide free, unlimited telephone and email Technical Support for the entire Service Life of the product during published Technical Support hours (weekdays 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time) for its software and database products. The Service Life terminates on the End of the Technical Support Date for the product version licensed (see Bio‑Rad Informatics End of Technical Support Policy below).

Bio‑Rad Informatics will provide free software upgrades, patches, and fixes on all newly-licensed products for a grace period of one (1) year after the date of original license.

To receive software upgrades, patches, and fixes after this grace period, a customer must license one of the following:

• Option A: Bio‑Rad Informatics Upgrade Plan – Within two (2) years after the initial license date, a Bio‑Rad Informatics Upgrade Plan may be licensed. The Plan fee is 20% of the then-current list price of all components originally licensed.
• Option B: Buy an Upgrade to the Original Products – In the third year after the initial license date, an upgrade to the original products must be licensed. The upgrade license fee is 75% of the then-current list price of all components originally licensed.
• Option C: Relicense the Newest Version of the Original Products – After three (3) years after the initial license date, the entire product and all components must be relicensed at the then-current list price.
  

All software upgrades, patches, and fixes will be available via download. DVDs are available on request at an additional fee. Customers will be contacted when major upgrades are available for download from the Bio‑Rad Informatics Web site.

Bio‑Rad Informatics reserves the right to require that a customer upgrade to the most current version of the product to resolve a product issue.

Customers who license a HaveItAll database annual license may be eligible for a free Bio‑Rad Informatics Upgrade Plan.

• All Bio‑Rad software products directly associated with the HaveItAll database annual license are covered under the free Upgrade Plan.
• Third-party add-ons distributed by Bio‑Rad are not eligible for a free Upgrade Plan. A fee of 20% of the incremental value of the third-party add-ons must be paid to add them to the Upgrade Plan; otherwise the software version cannot be upgraded.
• Software products not associated with the HaveItAll database annual license are not covered under the free Upgrade Plan. Additional coverage under the Upgrade Plan may be licensed for software products not associated with a HaveItAll database annual license.

What if additional options are licensed after the initial license?

• All additional licenses must be added to an existing Bio‑Rad Informatics Upgrade Plan.
• The Bio‑Rad Informatics Upgrade Plan will be based on the current list price.

Can the Bio‑Rad Informatics Upgrade Plan be renewed?

• Yes. At any time before the Plan expires, it may be renewed for any number of years at 20% of the then-current price of the products originally licensed per year.
• The Plan cannot be renewed for only a portion of the product components currently contained in a single license. All product components not covered by the Bio‑Rad Informatics Upgrade Plan must be made inactive.

What if the Bio‑Rad Informatics Upgrade Plan is not renewed?

• If not renewed, all benefits of the Plan will cease immediately following the Plan's expiration date.

Can the original Plan be renewed more than one year after the expiration date?

• No. After one year, the current upgraded version of all products originally licensed must be licensed for 75% of the current list price at the time of the upgrade license.
• A new Bio‑Rad Informatics Upgrade Plan may then be licensed to cover the upgraded product for any number of years, based on the above pricing.
• The new expiration date will be based on the license date of the upgrade.

Bio-Rad is discontinuing its IDX file format. Are there upgrade offers to transition from the IDX format to new SDB format?

Yes, the following offer will help transition you to the new sdb file format. This offer is contingent upon receipt of your old IDX security device within 120 days.

IDX Database Upgrade Offer: We will upgrade customer's databases as outlined in chart below. This upgrade will be offered until December 31, 2014, after which upgrades will be at the full price.

Bio‑Rad Informatics End of Technical Support Policy

• Engineering Support – Telephone support and potential workarounds as well as fixes and patches to the current major version of the software. Engineering Support is only available for the current version of the software.
• Technical Support – Telephone support and potential workarounds, but not software fixes and patches. Technical Support for an old product version is available for two (2) years after the release of a new product version that supersedes the previous product version.
• Version Launch Date – The date upon which Bio‑Rad's Informatics Division begins shipping a new version of a product.
• End of Engineering Support Date – The date after which Bio‑Rad's Informatics Division will no longer provide software fixes and patches for a product version.
  • Engineering Support will be provided for the newest version of a product until the subsequent version of that product is released.
  • No software fixes or patches will be provided for old product versions.
• End of Technical Support Date – The date after which Bio‑Rad's Informatics Division will no longer provide Technical Support for old product versions.
  • The End of Technical Support Date for a product version will occur two (2) years after the release of the version of the product that supersedes that version.
  • After the End of Technical Support Date, Bio‑Rad Informatics will no longer provide any Technical Support for that product version. This is synonymous with the Endof Service Life for that specific version.