Helpful Information / Articles: Licensing - Trademark Licenses
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A trademark or service mark license is a grant of permission by the owner of a trademark to allow another to use the mark. A trademark license differs from other types of licenses because the trademark owner must exercise some degree of control over the nature and quality of the goods or services on which the licensed trademark is used. This is because a trademark is used to indicate the quality of the goods and the source of the goods. Therefore, the licensor of the trademark must exert control to be sure that the public is not deceived into buying goods or services, thinking they have a certain quality or are from a certain source when they do not. If adequate quality control is not present, the trademark license may be deemed a "naked license" and invalid. Even worse, the mark may cease to indicate the quality or source of the goods or services, and therefore may be considered abandoned or lost. Quality control usually means that the licensor has supervised the goods or services sufficiently to guarantee their quality.

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