Also known as: implied licenses · implied licensing · implied licence
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
An inferred grant of permission arising from circumstances or conduct that allows another to engage in acts that would otherwise be unlawful. The permission is limited to the scope that a reasonable person would understand from the surrounding facts and may be revoked by clear contrary action.
Officers approached Irene Ingalls's home with a drug-sniffing dog. They led the dog through a side gate into a fenced yard containing children's toys rather than stopping at the front door. The dog's alert occurred directly beneath a bedroom window. Because the side yard formed part of the curtilage, the dog's presence exceeded the limited permission ordinary visitors enjoy to approach and knock.
A foreign publisher sold textbooks to Supap Kirtsaeng in Thailand. Kirtsaeng later imported the books into the United States and resold them to students. The initial sale carried an implied permission for importation and resale because the circumstances showed the publisher had granted the rights that the first-sale doctrine recognizes.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., an academic textbook publisher, often assigns to its wholly owned foreign subsidiary Wiley Asia rights to publish, print, and sell foreign editions of Wiley's English language textbooks abroad. Each copy states that it is authorized for sale only in particular regions outside the United States and may not be exported without permission. Supap Kirtsaeng, a citizen of Thailand, moved to the United States in 1997 to study mathematics at Cornell University on a Thai government scholarship. While studying, Kirtsaeng asked friends and family in Thailand to purchase copies of these foreign edition textbooks at low prices in Thai book shops and to mail them to him. Kirtsaeng sold the imported books in the United States, reimbursed his family and friends for their purchases, and retained the profit after successfully completing his undergraduate and doctoral programs. In 2008 Wiley filed a federal lawsuit against Kirtsaeng alleging that his unauthorized importation and resale of the books infringed Wiley's exclusive right to distribute copies under 17 U.S.C. §106(3) and the import prohibition in §602(a)(1). The District Court rejected Kirtsaeng's assertion of the first sale defense. The jury found that Kirtsaeng had willfully infringed eight of Wiley's copyrighted titles and assessed statutory damages of $600,000. A split panel of the Second Circuit affirmed the District Court's judgment that the first sale doctrine does not apply to copies of American copyrighted works manufactured abroad. The Supreme Court granted Kirtsaeng's petition for certiorari to consider the question in light of differing views among the Circuits.
View caseAn implied license arises from conduct or surrounding circumstances rather than from spoken or written words. It is measured by what a reasonable person would understand the owner or creator to have permitted.
Yes. Clear posted notice such as "No Trespassing" signs objectively communicates withdrawal of any prior permission. Once revoked, continued entry becomes trespass.
Supporting sources
No. The implied license permits only ordinary visitor conduct such as knocking on the front door. Bringing a trained detection dog to explore curtilage exceeds that scope and constitutes a search.
A sale carries an implied license to resell when the circumstances demonstrate that the parties intended the work to be used in the manner the first-sale doctrine protects, such as lawful importation and resale to students.
Supporting sources
…viability of this option proposed by the Commonwealth is hampered for the additional reason that the defendant had no driver's license or any other apparent method to make the twenty-mile trek to Pittsfield. : As of 2014, Massachusetts had the fifth highest number of homeless people in the United States. 2014…