The Essence of a License Agreement
Trademark licensing means that the holder of the mark (the licensor) grants another person (the licensee) the right to use the trademark under a license agreement. This instrument is the legal foundation of brand expansion, franchising and partner manufacturing. The rules are set by the Georgian Law on Trademarks: Article 26 defines the content of the license agreement, the types of license and the parties' rights, while Article 24 defines what counts as use of a trademark — decisive for assessing the reality of the license.
Exclusive and Simple Licenses
Under the law a license is exclusive or simple. If the character of the license is not evident from the agreement, a simple license is presumed — in that case the licensor may itself use the trademark and conclude other license agreements. An exclusive license, conversely, does not give the licensor the right to conclude other license agreements or to use the mark itself, unless otherwise provided by the agreement; the rights arising from an exclusive license remain in force for the validity period of the trademark registration, unless otherwise provided by the agreement.
A license agreement may be concluded with respect to the entire list of goods or to a part of it — so the parties' concessions can also be divided by category of goods. The licensee is prohibited from transferring the rights arising from the license agreement or granting a sublicense where this does not directly follow from the agreement — a boundary that cuts off the risk of uncontrolled expansion against the brand owner's interests.