A software licence agreement does not transfer ownership of the work but grants the right to use it within an agreed scope. Four parameters are decisive: the scope of use, including the number of users, devices or installations; territorial and temporal validity; exclusivity or non-exclusivity; and the possibility of sublicensing. For custom development, it is essential to agree whether the company also obtains the right to modify the work and change supplier, or whether the source code will be handed over to it – without this, it remains dependent on a single party. For projects funded from public sources, the provider requires that the rights be sufficient for operation throughout the entire sustainability period, which a time-limited licence may not satisfy. It is likewise worth agreeing conditions for the event that the supplier ceases operating, for example by depositing the source code with a third party. Without this, there is a risk that the solution becomes unsustainable.
See also: Intellectual Property Rights to an AI Solution, Ownership of the website and source code, Licences and subscriptions in a project.
