---
title: "Enterprise License Agreements"
url: "https://legal.ge/en/service/technology-and-digital-law-en/enterprise-license-agreements-en"
field: "Technology & Digital Law"
description: "Licence agreements in Georgia: exclusive licences, royalty, territory, term and cancellation rules. Legal.ge."
reviewed: "2026-07-09"
updated: "2026-10-23"
publisher: "legal.ge"
---

# Enterprise License Agreements

> Source: legal.ge, https://legal.ge/en/service/technology-and-digital-law-en/enterprise-license-agreements-en

## The Foundations of Transferring Copyright and the Role of the Contract

For any enterprise that creates or uses intellectual products, the central legal question is who holds the copyright and how it may be transferred. The law establishes that copyright is transferred by operation of law, by will through inheritance, or by contract. Each route leads to a different result: law and will operate within the term of the copyright and concern only the special rights of use, while a contract determines, by agreement of the parties, precisely who uses the work, in what manner and on which territory. That is why the principal instrument of licensing relationships at enterprise level is the written contract.

The distinction between personal and proprietary rights is fundamental. The rights of authorship, of the name and of the inviolability of the work are not transferred by inheritance — heirs only receive the capacity to protect those personal rights, and that capacity is not limited in time. Proprietary rights, meaning the ability to use the work, are fully transferable: an author or another holder of copyright may transfer all proprietary rights or a part of them to a successor. An author may also designate a person who will protect those personal rights until the author’s death; where heirs do not exist or do not properly exercise the right of protection, it is exercised by the National Intellectual Property Centre Sakpatent.

The full text is available on legal.ge after signing in: https://legal.ge/en/service/technology-and-digital-law-en/enterprise-license-agreements-en

### How is copyright transferred?

Copyright is transferred by operation of law, by will or by contract. Proprietary rights are transferred by agreement, while personal rights are not transferred by inheritance, and heirs may protect them without a time limit.

### What does an exclusive licence mean?

Under an exclusive licence agreement the licensee alone receives the right to use the work in the manner defined by the contract and to prohibit such use by other persons, including the author.

### Which conditions must a licence agreement contain?

An exact description of the work, the specific manner of use, the term and territory, the royalty or the procedure for determining it, and the payment terms. Manners of use left unregulated remain with the author, and without a territory clause the agreement covers only Georgia.

### When may an agreement without a term be cancelled?

The author or the other rightsholder may cancel it after 3 years from its conclusion, provided the licensee is notified in writing 6 months before cancellation.