Opinions & Advice

Edmunds Perpetual Contract

Jeff Kershner
Posted onJun 19, 2011 at 11:35 AM
Updated onUpdated on Jun 19, 2011 at 6:40 AM

Do you know what “Perpetual” means?

per·pet·u·al

  1. continuing or enduring forever; everlasting.
  2. lasting an indefinitely long time: perpetual snow.
  3. continuing or continued without intermission or interruption; ceaseless.

Edmunds legaleeze:

edmunds.com Dealer Contract for DMS Polling

#7.  Dealership hereby grants to Edmunds a royalty-free, nonexclusive, non-transferable, PERPETUAL license….

Are you fully understanding your contracts?  Have you fully understood what Edmunds and TrueCar are asking of you?

Jeff Kershner
Founder of DealerRefresh - 20+ Years of dealership Sales, Management, Training, Marketing and Leadership.
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That sure is an easy term to lose in a glance.
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    Joe Webb
  • June 19, 2011
Not since "till death do us part" has their been such a scary clause mentioned in a mutual agreement.
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    Guest
  • June 20, 2011
It's important to have some experience in reading contracts. The 'perpetual' language means that since they don't own the data, they have to have permission from the dealer to continue to use the data in the event a relationship no longer exists (it was cancelled by dealer). It doesn't mean that they get to access the dealers DMS perpetually even if there is no relationship in place. For example, they can't go behind a dealers back with the user/pass, etc and grab the data even if the dealer no longer uses their services.
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    JQ
  • June 20, 2011
Perpetual -- like the constant allure, comfort, and wear-ability of  jean shorts.
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Mike - the use of any contractual language is always at the interpretation of a court of law at the end of the day.  An initial implication can have a final interpretation that is different.  This is why we should have lawyers looking our contracts over. 
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Now that's funny.
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    Guest
  • June 20, 2011
Totally agree. Some pretty good reasons to have counsel on staff. Each state does have some differences. However, there is some more standard language that can survive across state lines. Either way, dealers need to pay careful attention and continue to be vigilant.
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    Jeff Kershner
  • September 8, 2011
Read those contracts dealers! Look like EVeryCarListed wants your transactional data as well - http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f21/yet-another-perpetual-data-feed-contract-2024.html#post16459
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