You have it right. It was the word "franchise" that provides a term for the leasing the OI platform for  applications in any vertical that POET itself will not compete with own modules. 

It is plausible to have such an agreement where nn(n) millions of dollars are provided upfront. The franchisee does all the work on prototypes and future iterations of their product(s) with no connection with POET other than a consulting relationship.  

This type of non-dilutive big cash infusion would be a neat way of funding whatever POET intends to produce on their own somewhere down the road.