Unicate Systems PBC is a public benefit corporation under Subchapter XV of the Delaware General Corporation Law, founded in 2026 by Frank Heitmeyer. Sovereign by Design is not a slogan here — it is chartered. Our Certificate of Incorporation binds the corporation to four specific public benefits. They are published below verbatim, because convictions you are legally accountable to weigh more than convictions you merely advertise.
The four public benefits — from our Certificate of Incorporation
(a) Humans decide — AI never governs. Advancing the development and stewardship of artificial intelligence and associated governance frameworks in which human beings retain ultimate decision-making authority — such that AI systems support, protect, conduct research for, and advise the persons and communities they affect; exercise no decision-making authority of their own; and may give effect to a decision only pursuant to rules established in advance by those persons.
(b) Sovereignty over data and digital life. Promoting the sovereignty, privacy, and self-determination of individuals and communities in their relationship with artificial intelligence and digital systems, including their ability to own, hold, and control their own data.
(c) Education and accessibility. Promoting education, accessibility, and understanding of ethical, human-centered artificial intelligence and of decentralized and cooperative approaches to technology and society.
(d) Innovation accountable to people. Supporting and demonstrating, for the benefit of society generally, stakeholder-oriented and responsible models of technological innovation that balance innovation with accountability to affected persons, communities, and future generations — including through such means as cooperative ownership and round-table governance, as those means develop and evolve over time.
The Corporation may engage in business and operations, or remain inactive or dormant, at such times and in such manner as the Board of Directors may from time to time determine in its discretion.
Dormant — by design, not by neglect
That last sentence is also from the certificate, and it is why the imprint lists the corporation as dormant. Dormancy is a chosen resting state, not an ending: the four public benefits stand whether or not the company trades, and the corporation remains in good standing, ready but quiet.
What it would take to go from dormant to active: the PBC is reserved for the commercial lane — organizations that want the software with commercial terms, support, or licensing outside the open-source route. If a partner steps forward to build that lane, the Board can activate the corporation by resolution, with commercial licences paying royalties to the technology’s author. One thing will never change with activation: the open-source release stays free for everyone.