Home Blog Software License Review

Software License Review

This page explains what a software license review includes and what lawyers look for, based on ContractsCounsel data.

Jump to Section

Quick Facts — Software License Lawyers

What Is a Software License Review?

A software license review covers the details of a software license agreement. For example, a software license can include a software end user license agreement, service license agreement, subscriber agreement, and privacy policy.

Software licenses are an essential part of a SaaS agreement. The license determines legally binding guidelines for end users of the software, including:

  • Use and distribution
  • Their right to one or more copies
  • The penalties for violating any terms and conditions within the agreement

The review process ensures that the software license agreement is fair to users and protects the company. It is also a critical aspect of maintaining software compliance.

Developers must meet government and regulatory standards, and their software license reflects their product’s quality and the company’s trustworthiness.

Here is an article that explains what a software license is.

Types of Software Licenses

There are several types of software licenses that a company may use. These are:

  • Public Domain
  • Permissive
  • LGPL
  • Copyleft
  • Proprietary

1. Public Domain

A public domain software has no copyright, and it is free for the public to use and distribute at its discretion. Open-source software is public domain, and its software user license will reflect the open-ended nature of its design.

Because the software is unpatented and unrestricted, anyone can download, use, and modify it however they like. While no software license is required for public domain programs, it is common for developers to include the Creative Commons License.

2. Permissive

A permissive software use agreement carries limited regulations regarding copyrights. It allows users to distribute the software without modifying it in any way. Although it is often confused with public domain software, permissive software still has some requirements and set limitations for its users.

3. LGPL

An LGPL software license is an open-source software license that permits open sharing with the public. The most significant stipulation of LGPL software licenses is the requirement to allow end users to obtain modifications and copyright information readily.

4. Copyleft

Copyleft allows any software to be freely modified and distributed as long as the user gives attribution to the original creator. Furthermore, any product derived from the copyleft software must follow the same conditions.

For example, someone cannot alter a copylefted code for a website theme, then sell that theme to the public. They would only be able to redistribute their modified code for free.

5. Proprietary

The strictest type of software license agreement is the proprietary license. Under a proprietary license, the company that made the software maintains complete ownership and control over its code, features, and user rights.

There are binding guidelines for end users in this type of agreement, which can incur legal penalties if they violate any of the terms and conditions of their user agreement. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to read the end user's agreement before using software in any way.

Here is an article with more information about licensing agreements.

Meet some lawyers on our platform

Darren W.

1 project on CC
CC verified
View Profile

Heather B.

193 projects on CC
CC verified
View Profile

Dolan W.

1505 projects on CC
CC verified
View Profile

Faryal A.

461 projects on CC
CC verified
View Profile

What Types of Lawyers Review Software Licenses?

A software lawyer or technology attorney reviews software licenses and all their terms and conditions. They ensure that the company’s license complies with regulations while protecting end users’ best interests.

Technology lawyers specializing in software often work with SaaS companies and developers who want to protect their products. As a result, they understand the importance of preserving intellectual property and are well-versed in IP law.

Working with a technology lawyer is also the best way to ensure that your software license meets national and international requirements.

Here is an article with more details about technology law.

Why Should Companies Review their Software Licenses?

The biggest reason to review a software license is to ensure that your company and product always comply with federal regulations. The continual review also helps companies protect themselves from copyright infringement and losses due to license violations.

At times, the company may also need to update its software maintenance agreement or SMA. This document outlines the developer’s obligation to provide technical support to its end users.

Updating software licenses can provide companies and consumers with greater peace of mind. In addition, continued review and annual updates benefit any company’s risk management strategy.

Here is an article about software maintenance agreements and their role in licensing.

What is Software License Compliance?

For developers, software license compliance is a process of ensuring that you are offering all the services you are legally obligated to. In addition, license compliance helps consumers understand exactly how they can use software and guides them on what steps to take if they encounter complications.

License compliance assures organizations are using the software as the developers permit them. This prevents any violations and accidental damages incurred from violating agreements.

Here is an article with more information about the importance of software compliance.

How Do You Audit Software Licenses?

A software license audit is common among companies that issue licenses to organizations. For example, Amazon and Microsoft commonly perform audits to ensure that their users are not violating the terms of their software user agreements.

The easiest way to audit software licenses is through a software license monitoring system. This type of software allows you to identify data points and determine how, if any, users are not compliant with their agreement.

Here is an article on how to do a software audit.

What Should I Look for in a Software License?

As an end user, there are several features you should always look for when you download a new software:

  • Restrictions for use.
  • Warranty disclaimers.
  • Privacy policy.
  • Limitations of liability.
  • License granting.
  • Subscriber agreement (for SaaS software)
  • Service license agreement
  • Start date and termination clauses.

Here is an article with more details on software end user license agreements.

Post a project in ContractsCounsel’s marketplace to receive flat fee bids from lawyers for your project. All lawyers have been vetted by our team and peer-reviewed by our customers for you to explore before hiring.


ContractsCounsel is not a law firm, and this post should not be considered and does not contain legal advice. To ensure the information and advice in this post are correct, sufficient, and appropriate for your situation, please consult a licensed attorney. Also, using or accessing ContractsCounsel's site does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and ContractsCounsel.


Need help with a Software License?

Create a free project posting
Clients Rate Lawyers 4.9 Stars
based on 22,767 reviews

Meet some of our Lawyers

Alton H. on ContractsCounsel
View Alton
5.0 (42)
Member Since:
January 12, 2026

Alton H.

Attorney
Free Consultation
Washington, DC
12 Yrs Experience
Licensed in DC, NJ, NY, VA
The George Washington University Law School

I am a U.S.-licensed attorney with more than a decade of experience in complex litigation and intellectual property matters. I have practiced at leading Am Law firms including Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Arent Fox, and Sughrue Mion, and I currently operate my own law practice. I have extensive experience handling high-stakes patent litigation, drafting pleadings and briefs, managing large-scale discovery, preparing and defending depositions, and appearing before federal courts and administrative bodies such as the PTAB and ITC. I hold a J.D., cum laude, from The George Washington University Law School and advanced technical degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering, which allow me to efficiently handle technically complex matters. I am admitted in multiple jurisdictions, including New York, Virginia, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia, and I regularly provide high-quality remote legal support to clients nationwide.

Recent  ContractsCounsel Client  Review:
5.0

"Alton has been great to work with. My project was completed in a timely manner. He is a great communicator and stayed in budget."

Odini G. on ContractsCounsel
View Odini
5.0 (8)
Member Since:
August 7, 2024

Odini G.

Attorney
Free Consultation
Aspen
19 Yrs Experience
Licensed in CO, GA, NY
Emory University School of Law

I am an accomplished attorney with more than 19 years of experience and extensive expertise in business negotiations, commercial contracts, and technology transactions. With a proven track record of providing strategic legal advice and delivering exceptional results, I have successfully assisted numerous clients in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating various business arrangements. My experience encompasses a wide range of areas, including intellectual property, data privacy and security, SaaS agreements, and software licenses. I co-founded a reputable general corporate law firm with three offices in Aspen, Atlanta, and New York. As a partner and attorney, I represented diverse clients, including start-ups, public corporations, investors, financial institutions, educational institutions, and non-profit entities. With a focus on delivering comprehensive legal solutions, I provided general counsel, expert dispute resolution, efficient litigation management, and skillful contract drafting and negotiations for businesses across industries.

Recent  ContractsCounsel Client  Review:
5.0

"Supremely responsive and works surprisingly quickly. Strongly recommend!"

Faryal A. on ContractsCounsel
View Faryal
4.9 (268)
Member Since:
February 23, 2023

Faryal A.

Attorney/Counsel
Free Consultation
Houston, Texas
4 Yrs Experience
Licensed in TX
University of Houston

Ms. Ayub is an attorney licensed to practice in Texas. Before moving to the US, she has a number of years of experience in contract review, analysis and drafting. Ms. Ayub is available to help you with your legal problems, as well as filling LLC and other business entity formation documents. To know more about her practice, please visit https://ayublawfirmpllc.com/.

Recent  ContractsCounsel Client  Review:
4.7

"Faryal did a great job at capturing the needs for drafting my small business purchase agreement from the elements I shared with her. The document was delivered on time, without requiring either a pre-consultation or review round; it was of excellent quality from the first shot."

Scott S. on ContractsCounsel
View Scott
5.0 (67)
Member Since:
October 27, 2021

Scott S.

Attorney
Free Consultation
New York, NY
19 Yrs Experience
Licensed in NY
Benjamin Cardozo School of Law

I specialize in business law and contracts, with an emphasis on commercial transactions and negotiations, document drafting and review, employment, business formation, e-commerce, technology, healthcare, privacy, commercial real estate, data security and compliance. Specifically, I've drafted, reviewed and/or negotiated thousands of MSA's, NDA's, TOS', SAAS, sales, service, managed services, referral, reseller, royalty, finder’s fee, employment, contractor, consulting, advertising, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, management, artist, author, agency, photography, rental, lease, vendor, partnership, website, platform, application, privacy, non-compete, non-circumvent, confidentiality, IP ownership and licensing agreements so I'm very familiar with these types of documents. Practicing law since 2006, I worked in-house before starting my own solo practitioner law firm in 2011. I've worked with individuals and start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, and every type of entity in between, always providing quality legal work that fits the exact needs of the person and/or business. I’m a graduate of the Benjamin Cardozo Law School and also have an English degree from Penn.

Recent  ContractsCounsel Client  Review:
5.0

"Scott helped me reviewed the contracts and saved me from getting into a trap of an outsourced sales services provider from Philippines and Australia"

Daniel R. on ContractsCounsel
View Daniel
5.0 (184)
Member Since:
January 2, 2023

Daniel R.

Business and Real Estate Atttorney
Free Consultation
New York
30 Yrs Experience
Licensed in NY
New York Law School

NY Admitted Lawyer 20+ years of experience. Focused on Startups , Entrepreneurs, Entertainers, Producers, Athletes and SMB Companies. I have been a part of numerous startups as Founder, CEO, General Counsel and Deal Executive. I have been through the full life cycle from boot strap to seed investors to large funds-public companies to successful exit. Let me use my experiences help you as you grow your business through these various stages. We saw a market for an on-line platform dedicated to Virtual General Counsel Services to Start Ups and Private Companies.

Recent  ContractsCounsel Client  Review:
5.0

"Super happy with Dan's work. Just a quick intake outlining our new smartphone app and he came back with a very thorough set of documents. Definitely would recommend!"

Rosanne M. on ContractsCounsel
View Rosanne
Member Since:
September 22, 2025

Rosanne M.

Attorney
Free Consultation
Carlsbad, California
10 Yrs Experience
Licensed in CA
Santa Clara Law

Rosanne (Rosie) Brady Muschenheim is an experienced estate planning attorney practicing law exclusively in trusts, estates, business, and tax law. She studied advanced tax law by taking several courses through Boston University's LLM program. She served as the Western Region Estate Planning Consultant for Bessemer Trust Company in addition to running her own law firm. Rosie spent several years working in Silicon Valley at a prestigious law firm serving ultra high net worth clients, including Founders, Directors, and Officers at companies such as Google, Netflix, Juniper Networks, Tesla, DocuSign, Looker, Nvidia, Xilinx, and Fortinet. Rosie spent time practicing in Honolulu, Hawaii serving ultra high net worth clients, including descendants of Hawaiian royalty. While in Orange County, Rosie assisted many high net worth clients of notable fame in the entertainment industry and the manufacturing industry. Rosie started her own law firm to provide a more customized and personal service to clients than what is offered through larger law firms. Trust is essential to building client relationships, and with her own law firm Rosie is able to provide more attention and care to each client matter.

David A. on ContractsCounsel
View David
Member Since:
September 24, 2025

David A.

Managing Partner
Free Consultation
Los Angeles
33 Yrs Experience
Licensed in CA, TX
Dedman School of Law- Southern Methodist University

David M. Abner is a practicing attorney with over 30 years of experience representing clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies in California and Texas. Mr. Abner is currently based in Los Angeles, California, and his practice focuses on negotiating the purchase and sale of businesses; negotiating equity and debt financing agreements; drafting and negotiating revisions to a variety of commercial agreements; and investigating and responding to law enforcement and regulatory compliance investigations. Additionally, Mr. Abner has considerable experience dealing with litigation involving ownership and valuation of privately held companies. He has tried nearly a dozen cases in private practice, including cases involving breach of contract, products liability, fraud, and officer and director liability. As in-house counsel for Ashland Inc., Mr. Abner worked with business leaders daily to assess, manage and prevent a variety of legal risks that threatened the viability and profitability of products, services and customer relationships. His efforts produced results that included settling a $700M anti-trust class action lawsuit for less than $7M; assisting in closing the sale of the company’s joint venture interests in an oil and gas subsidiary; assessing and quantifying the liabilities associated with the acquisition of other businesses; and supervising Ashland’s responses to DOJ, FBI and EPA investigations. Mr. Abner has been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1993, and in California since 2012. Mr. Abner obtained his Juris Doctorate from the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University in 1993, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Carolina in 1990.

Find the best lawyer for your project

Browse Lawyers Now

See Real Software Agreement Projects

New Jersey VectorViewer Product License Agreement Drafting
  • New Jersey
  • 7 lawyer bids
  • $500 - $1,500
View Details
California Termination of Perpetual Contract Review
  • California
  • 4 lawyer bids
  • $550 - $750
View Details
Washington Sales contract for B2B web application and website development company Drafting
  • Washington
  • 13 lawyer bids
  • $1 - $2,500
View Details
Wyoming Review and adapt a B2B contract regarding a software service that includes a product integration but that now needs to be whitelabeled Drafting
  • Wyoming
  • 6 lawyer bids
  • $800 - $2,499
View Details
Florida B2B SaaS Software License Agreement Drafting
  • Florida
  • 11 lawyer bids
  • $350 - $2,000
View Details
California Master Software Services Agreement - free consult Review
  • California
  • 16 lawyer bids
  • $10 - $3,750
View Details

See all Software Agreement projects

Quick, user friendly and one of the better ways I've come across to get ahold of lawyers willing to take new clients.

View Trustpilot Review

Need help with a Software License?

Create a free project posting
Clients Rate Lawyers 4.9 Stars
based on 22,767 reviews
CONTRACT LAWYERS BY TOP CITIES
See All Technology Lawyers
SOFTWARE LICENSE REVIEW LAWYERS BY CITY
See All Software License Review Lawyers

Contracts Counsel was incredibly helpful and easy to use. I submitted a project for a lawyer's help within a day I had received over 6 proposals from qualified lawyers. I submitted a bid that works best for my business and we went forward with the project.

View Trustpilot Review

I never knew how difficult it was to obtain representation or a lawyer, and ContractsCounsel was EXACTLY the type of service I was hoping for when I was in a pinch. Working with their service was efficient, effective and made me feel in control. Thank you so much and should I ever need attorney services down the road, I'll certainly be a repeat customer.

View Trustpilot Review

I got 5 bids within 24h of posting my project. I choose the person who provided the most detailed and relevant intro letter, highlighting their experience relevant to my project. I am very satisfied with the outcome and quality of the two agreements that were produced, they actually far exceed my expectations.

View Trustpilot Review

Need help with a Software License?

Create a free project posting
Clients Rate Lawyers 4.9 Stars
based on 22,767 reviews

Want to speak to someone?

Get in touch below and we will schedule a time to connect!

Request a call

Find lawyers and attorneys by city