Legal Definitions - distribution license

A distribution license is a type of marketing license that allows a company to distribute a product or service in a specific geographic area. It is a permission, usually revocable, to commit an act that would otherwise be unlawful. The certificate or document evidencing such permission is also called a license.

For example, a software company may grant a distribution license to a third-party distributor to sell their software in a particular region. The distributor is authorized to distribute the software in that region, but the license may be revoked if the distributor violates any terms of the agreement.

Another example is a performing-rights society, such as ASCAP or BMI, granting a blanket license to a user to use all works in the society's portfolio in exchange for a fixed percentage of the user's revenues.