The verb license or grant license means to give permission. The noun license (licence in British and Canadian spelling) refers to that permission as well as to the document memorializing that permission. License may be granted by a party ("licensor") to another party ("licensee") as an element of an agreement between those parties. A shorthand definition of a license is "an authorization (by the licensor) to use the licensed material (by the licensee)."

Intellectual property

A licensor may grant license under intellectual property laws to authorize a use (such as copying software or using a (patented) invention) to a licensee, sparing the licensee from a claim of infringement brought by the licensor.

A license under intellectual property commonly has several component parts beyond the grant itself, including a term, territory, renewal provisions, and other limitations deemed vital to the licensor.

Term: many licenses are valid for a particular length of time. This protects the licensor should the value of the license increase, or market conditions change. It also preserves enforceability by ensuring that no license extends beyond the term of IP ownership.

Territory: a license may stipulate what territory the rights pertain to. For example, a license with a territory limited to "North America" (United States/Canada) would not permit a licensee any protection from actions for use in Japan.

Mass licensing of software

Mass distributed software is used by individuals on personal computers under license from the developer of that software. Such license is typically included in a more extensive end-user license agreement (EULA) entered into upon the installation of that software on a computer.

Under a typical end-user license agreement, the user may install the software on a limited number of computers.

The enforceability of end-user license agreements is sometimes questioned.

Trademark and brand licensing

A licensor may grant permission to a licensee to distribute products under a trademark. With such a license, the licensee may use the trademark without fear of a claim of trademark infringement by the licensor.

Artwork and character licensing

A licensor may grant a permission to a licensee to copy and distribute copyrighted works such as "art" (e.g., Thomas Kincaid's painting "Dawn in Los Gatos") and characters (e.g., Mickey Mouse). With such license, a licensee need not fear a claim of copyright infringement brought by the copyright owner.

Artistic license is, however, not related to the aforementioned license. It is a euphemism that denotes approaches in art works where dramatic effect is achieved at the expense of factual accuracy.

Academy

National examples of the License are listed at Licentiate

A license is an academic degree. Originally, in order to teach at a university, one needed this degree which, according to its title, gave the bearer a license to teach. The name survived despite the fact that nowadays doctorate is typically needed in order to teach at a university. A person who holds a license is called a licentiate.

In Sweden and some European universities it is approximately equivalent to an MPhil or MRes. In those countries, a license is a middle-level degree between a master's degree and a doctorate, taken by doctoral candidates, and is a popular choice in those countries where a "true" PhD would take five or more years to achieve.

In other countries, i.e. Poland or France, a license is achieved before the master's degree (it takes 3 years of studies to become licentiate and 2 additional years to become Master). In Switzerland, a licence is a 4-year degree then there is a DEA degree which is equivalent to the Master's degree. In Portugal, before the Bologna process, students would become licentiates after 5 years of studies (4 years in particular cases like Marketing, Management, etc; and 6 years for Medicine). However, since the adoption of the Bologna Process engineering degrees in Portugal were changed from a 5 year licence to a 3 year licence followed by 2 years for the MSc: Not having the MSc doesn't confer accreditation by the Ordem dos Engenheiros)

Spelling

In US English both the noun and the verb are spelt License. In Commonwealth/British English the noun is usually spelt Licence and the verb License, although the Oxford English Dictionary does allow License as a noun. The change from s to c to distinguish the noun from the verb is also seen in other words such as: advice (noun) vs advise (verb) and practice (noun) vs practise (verb). The advice/advise pair can be used as an aide-memoire as they are generally not confused because they have different pronunciation. Devise and device follow the same rule.

See also

• Licensure The concept engaging in activities like driving, medical care, etc. are wrong without state permission.
• Software license
• Intellectual property
  • Brand licensing
  • Licensing Industry Merchandiser's Association
  • Cross-licensing agreement
  • Statutory license
  • Compulsory license
  • Royalties
  • The Doctrine of the General Talking Pictures Case, which legitimated so-called field-of-use limitations in patent licenses (in the United States).
• Aviator
• Private Pilot's License
• Amateur radio license
• Federal Communications Commission
• Music licensing
• License to kill
• Dog license, Driver's license, Television license, Fishing license, Hunting license

References

Edward Browm Economics 1999

External links

• Licensing Industry Merchandiser's Association
• Licensing International Expo
• Licensing Act 2003 - England & Wales
• Best Practices in IP Management-An Open Source, Global Resource - Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices

Wikibooks

• Free/Open Source Software:Licensing