licence

Licences are a grant of a permission by an owner of rights to land, intellectual property rights or some other type of property. A licence is a permission to do something that would otherwise be unlawful.

For instance, an owner of patent rights may license their patent to third parties to manufacture or distribute the patented invention to relieve themselves of the burden of manufacturing the invention or distributing the invention themselves. Similar concepts apply to licensing copyright works, know-how, articles incorporating an industrial design and trade mark rights.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, Patents Act 1977 and Designs Act 1949 grant statutory licences in limited circumstances, which includes compulsory licences and implied licences.

The common law will usually imply a licence into a contract where it is reasonable (and more importantly necessary) to do so, to give effect to the objective intention of the parties to the contract. There are no formal requirements for granting a licence and may be given orally or in writing. At common law, licences do not have a proprietary interest in the relevant property. As a consequence, licensees do not have locus standi to restrain infringement of intellectual property rights. This position has been altered by statute in respect to IP rights.

Licensors are not limited to granting licences to named persons; they may also be granted to a class of people,

Although non-exclusive licences do not need to be evidenced in writing, it is sound commercial practice to do so to properly manage the limitations on the licence granted that might otherwise be misconstrued or abused.

Usage: The intellectual property rights owner entered in a patent licence with the manufacturer.

Related Words: sublicenses; exclusive licence; exclusive licensee; locus standi; copyright; design; patent; know-how; confidential information; contract; Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 UK.