For virtually every kind of entertainment project that involves a license of intellectual property, the duration of the license is of great significance. Yet license agreements occasionally fail to state when or how the license comes to an end, perhaps due to negligence, the parties’ relationship, or the grantee’s unspoken hope that a license without a fixed term would be deemed perpetual. No matter the cause, a license of rights without a term can end badly for the licensee.
In two decisions, one from last month and one from last year, courts have interpreted New York law to permit termination “on reasonable notice” of licenses without fixed terms. One case involved a written copyright license in which the termination was conveyed orally, and the other involved an oral license of a name and logo in which the termination was delivered in writing. In both decisions, the parties seeking to enforce termination prevailed despite some inventive legal theories advanced by the licensees to avoid it.
The Copyright Case
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