Opening a Smart Materials Classic screen in the Smart Reference Data sub^menu typically asks for this license. Expanding this branch of the menu tree will not change the license, only if a related screen is opened from there. The same applies if you open the Smart Reference Data application, and throughout working with any screens in this application.
Whenever an MLCL license cannot be retrieved from the license pool in the mentioned cases, the software tries to get a different license. This is described in Details on Licensing Workflow and Components.