Legal Definitions - nonexclusive license

A nonexclusive license is a type of legal permission granted by an owner (the licensor) to another party (the licensee) to use certain property, such as intellectual property (like software, music, or images), without preventing the owner from granting the exact same permission to other parties. In simpler terms, the owner retains the right to license the same property to as many other individuals or entities as they wish. The licensee receives the right to use the property, but they do not have exclusive control over that use, meaning others can also obtain similar rights.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Stock Photography: Imagine a graphic designer purchases a license from a stock photography website to use a specific image of a mountain landscape in a client's travel brochure. This is a nonexclusive license because the stock photography website can, and typically does, license the exact same image to hundreds or thousands of other individuals and businesses for their own various projects. The graphic designer has permission to use the photo, but they do not have the sole right to use it; many others share that same right.

• Standard Software Application: A small business buys a license to use a popular cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software for its sales team. This is a nonexclusive license because the software company sells licenses for the same CRM application to countless other businesses worldwide. The small business gains the right to use the software according to the terms of the license, but it does not prevent the software provider from licensing the identical software to any other interested party.

• Background Music for Commercial Venues: A restaurant owner pays an annual fee to a music licensing organization to play a curated playlist of copyrighted music in their establishment for ambiance. This arrangement constitutes a nonexclusive license. The music licensing organization grants similar licenses to thousands of other restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores, and businesses across the country. The restaurant has legal permission to play the music, but it does not have an exclusive right to that music; many other venues also hold the same type of license to play from the same catalog.