A license is simply a contract that grants one party permission to do something they wouldn’t otherwise have a legal right to do. As a business owner or administrator, you may grant a license allowing others to use your products, or you may obtain a license to use someone else’s copyright-protected work, software or app, or trademarks.
Protect yourself
Hiring an attorney to review a license or write a new one for you can seem like an extravagant expense, especially if your budget is limited.
But without the assistance of legal counsel, writing a license, agreeing to one you’ve been given, or relying on a prewritten form instead of one tailored to your situation, is like playing poker: You may know how to play, but ultimately, your gamble is based on educated guesses about unknown factors.
The very nature of a license is that the licensor grants some, but not all, rights to the licensee. Thus, it is crucial that the agreement be worded accurately. It’s surprisingly easy for a licensor to give away rights they didn’t intend to and for a licensee to not get the rights they thought they were getting. Don’t take that gamble!
With a committed, collaborative, client-focused advocate on your side
Schedule a free phone consultation with Gretchen to:
- Explore your situation
- Discuss your goals and priorities
- Understand the options available to you and the legal ramifications
- Discuss the pros and cons of each
- Help you make the right business decisions for your company
- Trademark licenses, including co-existence agreements
- Copyright licenses
- Right of publicity licenses
- Publishing agreements
- Endorsement agreements
- Software licenses
Gretchen appreciates that each client’s needs, goals, and resources are unique, and she works to assist each client in choosing the options that are right for them.
Among other things, Gretchen helps her clients:
- Obtain the right to use works created by others
- License the use of their works to others
- Negotiate and implement trademark licensing
- Obtain the right to use someone else’s name, image, or likeness
- License others the right to use their website, app, or software
Schedule a free phone consultation with Gretchen to:
- Explore your situation
- Discuss your goals and priorities
- Understand the options available to you and the legal ramifications
- Discuss the pros and cons of each
- Help you make the right business decisions for your company
- Most licenses involve intellectual property rights or related rights (like right of publicity), and many of these areas, including copyright and trademark, have their own “terms of art.” In some situations, this means that certain terms must be included in a license for it to be valid; in other situations, it means that certain words have very specific meanings they wouldn’t have in other contexts.
- The devil is in the details, so it’s important to understand the legal significance of every bit of a license.
- But any legal agreement also must be read as a whole. Looking at only part of it out of context with the rest would be comparable to the fable of the blind men who encounter an elephant.
Gretchen came to me highly recommended, but I never expected that she would be as great as she is! My project is complicated, with copyright and licensing, trademark, Internet law, and contract issues galore. Gretchen works collaboratively with me to flesh out and discuss issues and to identify potential future issues, so that we ensure best outcomes, all while working strategically to minimize my legal fees. She responds quickly and meaningfully to all communications, which, in my experience, is unusual and refreshing. To top it off, she is upbeat, always positive, and full of energy!
Note:
A license is a type of contract, as are Terms of Use. You might find additional helpful information on our pages about General Contract Law and Website Terms of Use & Policies.