Licensing:
The verb license or grant license means to give permission. The noun license (licence in British 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)."
[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 from actions for use in Japan.
[edit] 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.
[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] Academy
A book published in the U.S. and its licensed Chinese reprint (for sale in Mainland China only)
- National examples of the License are listed at Licentiate
A licence 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 licence is called a licentiate.
In Sweden and some European universities it is approximately equivalent to an MPhil or MRes. In those countries, a licence 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 licence 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)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
[edit] Wikibooks
| 
