Legal Question in Technology Law in New York
software licenses for an International Company
Hello. I work for an ''international'' company meaning that we have subsidiaries around the globe. On paper, we are independently owned in each country. However, our IT Dept. in country ''A'' believes it is ok for them to purchase software and then distribute it to all the other companies since they are considered the headquarters. We are then given a bill for their software/services. I work for company ''b'' in country ''B'' This concerns me since legally, we are two separate entities even though we share the same company name. Is it ok for them to distribute software to us saying that their license will cover everything or do we have to purchase our own software since we are a separately owned company on paper and we are in a different country? --thanks
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: software licenses for an International Company
The master license agreement should be reviewed to determine whether software can be used by entities other than the company which contracted with the software company. Typically, standard licenses contain very restrictive language as to the scope of use of the software and limit it to specific entities or their subsidiaries/
ffiliates and, often, to a maximum number of individual users/
workstations. You need to know the legal relationships between your various companies to interpret the license agreement and to find out whether your use violates the license or not. The term "headquarters" is generally not useful from the legal perspective. Contact an IP attorney to assist you with the review.
The above reply is in the nature of general information, is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such.
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