The article says is "REVIEW: Was Onyx the first UNIX vendor on micro hardware? MARSH: I think so. I signed the distribution license in November of 1979."

By then, Al Arms (who ran Patent and Licensing of UNIX for AT&T) knew numerous of the commercial licensees wanted something better than the current "second CPU" license, plus many wanted binary redistribution rights. As I said, it is quite possible that Onyx signed the original V7 redistribution license first, but it was offered to many of us. I also pointed out that many of us pushed back and that there was great unhappiness with the terms that AT&T had offered. This is why we got together as a group to negotiate something. - which would later become the System III license. This contrasts with Al and the team coming up with something like they did with the V7 redistribution license.

On Wed, Jun 26, 2024 at 4:42 AM Al Kossow <aek@bitsavers.org> wrote:

On 6/19/24 9:44 AM, Clem Cole wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 19, 2024 at 12:00 PM Al Kossow <aek@bitsavers.org <mailto:aek@bitsavers.org>> wrote:
>
> On 6/19/24 8:47 AM, Clem Cole wrote:
>
> > That's how I remember Otis Wilson explaining it to us as commercial licensees at a licensing meeting in the early 1980s.
> > We had finally completed the PWB 3.0 license to replace the V7 commercial license (AT&T would rename this System III - but we knew it
> as PWB
> > 3.) during the negociations Summit had already moved on to the next version - PWB 4.0. IMO: Otis was not ready to start that
> process again.
>
> Is the really early history of Unix licensing documented anywhere?
>
> Not to my knowledge -- I probably know much/most of it as I lived it as part of a couple of the negotiation teams.
>
> The work on reviving a Plexus P20 prompted me to put up the history of Onyx and Plexus at
> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/plexus/history <http://bitsavers.org/pdf/plexus/history> and a long time ago someone who worked at Fortune
> told me we can all thank Onyx in 1980 for working out the single machine licensing withAT&T
>
> Hmm, I'm not sure —but I don't think it is wholly clear—although Onyx was early and certainly would have been a part. They were not the only
> firm that wanted redistribution rights.
>
> Numerous vendors asked for the V7 redistribution license, with HP (Fred Clegg), Microsoft (Bob Greenberg/Bill Gates), and Tektronix (me)
> being three, I am aware. It is quite possible Onyx signed the original V7 license first, but I know there was great unhappiness with the
> terms that AT&T initially set up. When the folks from AT&T Patents and Licensing (Al Arms at that point) talked to us individually, it was
> sort of "this is what we are offering" - mind you, this all started >>pre-Judge Green<< and the concept of negotiation was
> somewhat one-sided as AT&T was not allowed in the computer business.
>

An interview with Bob Marsh where he claims Onyx had the first license in Nov 1979 (pg 40)
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/plexus/history/Bob_Marsh_Interview_198412.pdf