Field of Use

Owners of intellectual property can grant licenses limiting the use that the licensee can make of the IP to particular purposes or fields of use, for example, licensing an antibiotic for use in veterinary purposes, but not for humans. The term is most commonly used in patent licensing, although it can arise in trademarks. Technically licenses of rights in a copyright license, that are not among the statutorily enumerated rights in the bundle of rights, are always field of use licenses and should usually be drafted as such, for example separating in the case of say a book the paperback rights from hardback rights (both of which are technically carve-outs from the broad right of reproduction).

Related Terms