license
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 273 U.S. 236 - De Forest Radio Telephone Co. v. United States · 1927Most cited · 335 citing opinions
No formal granting of a license is necessary in order to give it effect. Any language used by the owner of the patent or any conduct on his part exhibited to another, from which that other may properly infer that the owner consents to his use of the patent in making or using it, or selling it, upon which the other acts, constitutes a license, and a defense to an action for a tort.
How the Supreme Court has restated “license”
Each Supreme Court definition of “license,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “license”
Court decisions citing the 9 opinions that defined “license” — 1,419 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 9 definitions, chronological · 1859–1957
- ORIGINAL
the word 'license' means permission or authority; and a license to do any particular thing is a permission or authority to do that thing, and, if granted by a person having power to grant it, transfers to the grantee the right to do whatever it purports to authorize. It certainly transfers to him all the right which the grantor can transfer, to do what is within the terms of the license
a license is a personal privilege, can be conferred by parol or in writing, conveys no estate or interest, and is revocable at the pleasure of the party making it. There are also other incidents attaching to a license. It is an authority to do a lawful act, which, without it, would be unlawful, and while it remains unrevoked is a justification for the acts which it authorizes to be done. It ceases with the death of either party, and cannot be transferred or alienated by the licensee, because it is a personal matter, and is limited to the original parties to it. A sale of the lands by the owner instantly works its revocation, and in no sense is it property descendible to heirs.
The granting of a license, therefore, must be regarded as nothing more than a mere form of imposing a tax, and of implying nothing except that the licensee shall be subject to no penalties under national law, if he pays it.
federal, internal state trade
the word license, as used in that act, means permission or authority, and it is equally clear that a license to do any particular thing is a permission or authority to do that thing, and if granted by a person having power to grant it, that it transfers to the grantee the right to do whatever it purports to authorize.
A license has been generally defined as a mere personal privilege to do acts upon the land of the licensor, of a temporary character, and revocable at the will of the latter unless, according to some authorities, in the meantime expenditures contemplated by the licensor when the license was given have been made.
definition
The fundamental principle involved has been applied by this court in recent decisions in a great variety of circumstances, and it must be taken to be firmly established that one otherwise enjoying full capacity for the purpose cannot be compelled to take out a local license for the mere privilege of carrying on interstate or foreign commerce.
no requirement for interstate commerce
Under this statement it becomes at once apparent that the court below rightly decided that the contract right asserted had no existence, since, on the very face of the consent which was given, a mere right to occupy was conveyed, without any contract as to time, and which therefore, taking the best view for the railroad, amounted to conferring upon it a mere license to put and use a track upon the sidewalk, and therefore subject to the power of the city to revoke whenever it deemed the municipal interest required it to do so.
revocability of municipal permission
License' as used in the Administrative Procedure Act includes 'the whole or part of any agency permit, certificate, approval, registration, charter, membership, statutory exemption of other form of permission.