The verb license or grant license means to give permission. The noun license 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)."

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.

Mass licensing of software

Main: 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.

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 licensor.

Academy

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.