- license
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1. to give official permission for someone to do something or for an activity to take place:
• The building contractors we hired were licensed by the General Service Administration.
• The company is confident that it will be licensed to do business in California after the start of the new year.
2. to give someone permission to make or produce something to which you hold the patent (= the legal right to make or sell a new product ) or copyright (= the legal right to be the only producer or seller of a book, play, film, or record ) , usually in return for payment:• The company has licensed certain manufacturing and marketing rights for the drug.
license something to somebody• He has licensed the device to a farm equipment manufacturer.
3. to receive permission to make or produce something from the person or company that holds the patent or copyright to it, usually in return for payment:license something from somebody• It has licensed electronic publishing rights for the Chinese dictionary from a British publisher.
— licensed adjective [only before a noun] :• licensed operators of nuclear power plants
— licensing noun [uncountable] :• It has licensing agreements that allow it to use some of Computer Associates' software.
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license UK US /ˈlaɪsəns/ verb [T]► LAW, GOVERNMENT to give someone official permission to do or have something: license sb to do sth »The government is now prepared to license companies to award their own degrees.
► LAW, COMMERCE, IT to give someone permission to make, produce, or use something that you have created or that belongs to you: license sth to sb »It would create an opportunity for type designers to license fonts to specific websites.
► LAW, COMMERCE, IT to get permission to make, produce, or use something that has been created by or belongs to another person or company, usually by paying for it: license sth from sb »The TV company is seeking to license content from providers in every language.
Financial and business terms. 2012.
