License Agreement

A license agreement is a binding legal contract that governs the agreement, understanding, and/or condition relationship between the owner and/or creator of a product (licensor) and an end user (licensee). A license agreement must be in place whenever any party wishes to use, practice, or otherwise implement protected intellectual property such as a software application.

The legal contract between the licensor of a software application and the end user is commonly known as an End-User License Agreement (EULA). Given that software is traditionally licensed and not sold, the EULA specifies how an application may and may not be used, and dictates the scope and limits of licensor-imposed restrictions.

A license agreement protects the owner and/or creator of a software application by requiring end users to accept all conditions as laid out by the licensor in order to have authorized access to their intellectual property. The license agreement is a legally recognized entitlement and alerts end users that the property is protected by intellectual property laws and treaties.

The Click-Wrap End User License and the Shrink-Wrap End User License, license agreements that ContractEdge offers as part of the Software License and Intellectual Property Agreement Suite, are examples of two different EULAs with marked legal similarities. A click-wrap agreement is one whereupon the end user must assent to specific terms and conditions by clicking on a button on a dialogue box or popup window before they may use the software. The user is required to either accept or reject the terms of the license agreement before proceeding. A shrink-wrap agreement requires that the end user open the product--so called from breaching the plastic wrapping around the software box--in order to read and accept the contractual terms and conditions thereby laid out.

While courts have ruled some Click-Wrap End User Licenses and Shrink-Wrap End User Licenses to be binding agreements, as with all legal contracts, EULAs must meet the criteria for enforceability of form contracts. All ContractEdge documents are developed by attorneys who specialize in Information Technology law to ensure that they conform to the specific requirements of software license agreements.

Additional Topics
Legal Contract
Software Development Agreement
Web Design Contracts
Employment Agreement
Consulting Agreement