License

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Property law

Part of the common law series
Acquisition of property
Gift · Adverse possession · Deed
Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property
Alienation · Bailment · Licence
Estates in land
Allodial title · Fee simple
Life estate · Fee tail · Future interest
Concurrent estate · Leasehold estate
Condominiums
Conveyancing of interests in land
Bona fide purchaser · Torrens title
Estoppel by deed · Quitclaim deed
Mortgage · Equitable conversion
Action to quiet title
Limiting control over future use
Restraint on alienation
Rule against perpetuities
Rule in Shelley's Case
Doctrine of worthier title
Nonpossessory interest in land
Easement · Profit
Covenant running with the land
Equitable servitude
Related topics
Fixtures · Waste · Partition
Riparian water rights
Lateral and subjacent support
Assignment · Nemo dat
Other areas of the common law
Contract law · Tort law
Wills and trusts
Criminal Law · Evidence

To license or grant licence is to give permission. A licence (British/Australian Spelling) or license (American Spelling) is the document demonstrating 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 "a promise (by the licensor) not to sue (the licensee)."

1 Occupational
2 Intellectual property
3 Academia
4 See also
5 External links
- 5.1 Wikibooks

[edit] Occupational

Main article: Licensure

Obtaining a licence is required of a number of occupations and professions where maintenance of standards is required to protect public safety, for example physicians, psychologists, and electricians are often licensed by the government or professional societies.

[edit] Intellectual property

A licensor may grant license under "intellectual property" to do something (such as copy software or use a patented invention) without fear of a claim of intellectual property infringement brought by the licensor.

A license under intellectual property commonly has several component parts, including a term, territory, renewal, as well as 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.

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 for actions in Japan.

[edit] Mass licensing of software

Main article: Software license agreement

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 licensor.

[edit] Academia

A book published in the U.S. and its licensed Chinese reprint (for sale in Mainland China only)

A licence is an academic degree in many European universities which is approximately equivalent to a master's 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 licence is called a licentiate. Currently, a licence is a middle-level degree between a master's degree and a doctorate, and is a popular choice in those countries where a "true" Phd would take prohibitively long to achieve.

In some countries, i.e. Poland or France, a licence is achieved before the master's degree (it takes 3 years of studies to become licentiate and additional 2 years to become master).