SOFTWARE LICENSING SERVICES

What is Software Licensing?

Software licensing is when a software owner gives permission to a third party to use, modify, create derivative works of, distribute or resell certain software. When a software owner gives use of these rights to a third party, they are granting copyright license to do specific acts in and to the software through  a "software License."

What Is A Software License Agreement?

A software license is a written or click-through agreement wherein a software owner provides a licensee certain rights in and to the software. Those rights can include the right to use, modify, create derivative works of, distribute or resell software. A software license, and the rights granted therein, are primarily non-exclusive. Non-exclusive rights allow the copyright owner to further grant the same or similar rights in and to the software to additional third parties. An end-user software license is an example of a non-exclusive license; however, it is not uncommon to see an exclusive software distribution license when the software owner distributes software in certain regions of the country using varying distributors. Our Dallas software licensing attorneys can assist you in negotiating and drafting your software license agreements. 

The length of time of a software license grant will depend on the term of the license arrangement. For instance, one can grant licensed rights for any period of time (i.e., 1 or 5 years, etc.). A software license can also terminate automatically in the event certain conditions are not met. For example, a software license can be terminated if the fees for such license are not paid. Simply, a software license agreement is designed to enumerate the licensed rights of the parties in a clear and concise manner and cover matters similar to the following:

• Resale and Distribution Territories;

• Trademark Guideline Requirements;

• Manufacturing Guidelines;

• Duration, Renewal, and Termination;

• No Reverse Engineering;

• Patent, Trademark, and Copyright Indemnification;

• Disclaimer that Software is provided “AS IS”; and

• Other Limits on Liability.

Software License Enforcement

A properly drafted software license agreement is central to enforcing that software license agreement if and when a third party breaches it. Our software licensing attorneys can assist you in drafting and negotiating your software licenses based on the specific need of your software technology. It is important to draft all license agreements with enforce-ability in mind when considering the software technology. For instance, a typical end-user license allowing the software to be installed on a single CPU would be utterly inappropriate for a SaaS product. Software as a service (SaaS) is a software licensing and delivery model which does not require local installation.

Software Licensing Attorney 

Our Dallas software licensing attorneys can assist you in preparing software agreements and software licenses and provide you other general guidance in properly securing your software and other copyrights in and to your intellectual works.