Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Licence definition

What does Licence mean? A licence is permission, granted by contract or law, to do something that would otherwise be unlawful, without creating a proprietary interest. In practice, lawyers most often see: licences over land (a personal, usually non‑assignable permission—often a contractual licence—to occupy or use property, distinguished in case law from a lease and generally revocable subject to contract and proprietary estoppel); intellectual property licences (permission to use copyright, trade marks or patents on agreed terms); and regulatory licences. Regulatory use varies across the UK and Ireland. In England and Wales, the Legal Services Act 2007 requires an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) to hold...

Drafting and negotiating on‑premise software licences under UK law: practitioner guide to scope, delivery, IP, acceptance, audit, warranties, liability, escrow, support, export controls, termination and insolvency restrictions

Published by a LexisNexis TMT expert

Practice notes

Software, in general terms, is a computer programme made up of ordered instructions that, working alongside hardware and user inputs, enable a machine to carry out a particular task. Software is grouped into types depending on the functions it makes the computer execute. For instance, operating systems like Microsoft Windows and Apple’s macOS oversee and coordinate a computer’s core activities. They manage resources and co-ordinate essential processes. The operating system recognises input from peripherals such as the keyboard and mouse, routes output to the screen, and handles memory allocation across programmes. At the other end are applications that run on top of the operating system and deliver a specific, visible function for the user. They present a clear, user-facing capability. Examples include word processors, media players, and games. A software Licence is a contract giving a customer permission to use specified software, subject to stated limitations. Such agreements are enforceable and define permitted use and limits.

This Practice Note considers the following issues and key terms in software licence agreements:

Identifying the software
Licence grant and Scope
Delivery
Charges
Acceptance testing
Intellectual property rights...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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