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![handle is hein.journals/indiajoula3 and id is 1 raw text is: 2007]
THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF LAW AND TECHNOLOGY
Volume 3, 2007
LICENSING INFORMATION ASSETS
IN THE NEW ECONOMY:
A PRO-RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE
Raymond T. Nimmer*
ABSTRACT
Transactions in the twenty-first century are no longer restricted to just transactions of
goods. The digital age has brought with it a boom in transactions in information, and
licensing of information assets is often seen as the best way to permit and control the
use of the information in question by mutual agreement. However, given the rapidity
of technological advances and the corresponding changes in the nature of licensing
transactions, an economy is not best served by a static legal system that continues to
treat information licensing in the same manner as a hire, rent or lease of goods. This
article therefore examines the nature of licences as well as the market and legal
rationales behind licensing in an effort to depict the impact of these transactions and
the importance of having dynamic legal systems enforcing and protecting them.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. IN TRO D U CTIO N .......................................................................... 2
II. W H AT IS A LICEN CE? .................................................................... 4
III. CONTEXT: TRANSACTIONS IN INFORMATION,
N O T G O O D S .................................................................................... 6
IV. THE RATIONALE FOR LICENSING .......................................... 10
A. The Market Rationale: Diversity and Tailoring .......................... 11
B. The Legal Rationale for Licensing ............................................. 20
V . C O N C LU SIO N ............................................................................... 23
Dean and Leonard Childs Professor of Law, University of Houston Law Center; B.A. (Mathematics)
'66, Valparaiso University; J.D. '68, Valparaiso University School of Law.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/indiajoula3&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)