Legal Question in Business Law in Japan

Re: Licensing Arrangements in Japan

It is really a matter of contract to be negotiated between the parties. In the contract the parties should specify which countries law is to apply.

Re: Licensing Arrangements in Japan

"License" is legalese for "permission." A license is an instrument that gives the holder the right, or permission, to do something he ordinarily would be barred from doing by the law of copyright, patent, trespass, the vehicle code, or the like.

The laws governing licenses are those covering contracts and also the substantive law of the subject matter covered by the license, such as copyright.

A license is a partial transfer of rights, whereas an assignment is a complete transfer, and licenses are almost always non-exclusive or at least partially non-exclusive.

Licenses are often more easily revoked than other forms of agreements and some licenses do not require a valuable consideration.

Many industries have long-standing traditions of licensing, and these traditional practices will be considered by courts in interpreting and enforcing such licenses.

A grant of license should specify the grantee, nature of the license, its duration, termination short of the full duration, royalties or other consideration, etc.

International licensing is common, but requires an understanding of the laws and traditional practices of each country, and preferably the license should recite what law applies and where any legal action on the license must be brought.

The best way to learn about licensing is to go to your county law library and ask to look at a practice manual on licensing. Try 'Licensing Desk Book' published by Aspen.

Many licenses that involve intellectual property such as trademarks contain carefully-drafted provisions for calculating royalties, quality control, indemnity, territorial restrictions, accounting, insurance and other terms.