Boilerplate Clauses

Boilerplate clauses: the clauses are considered to be standard clauses that can be used in any context. Keep in mind they are still negotiable.

1. Arbitration, alternative to litigation – How can disagreements be solved
2. Confidential information – licensor might request that details of agreement are kept secret. Very difficult to do in praxis especially for consortia.
3. Entire agreement – complete agreement, nothing else is part of the agreement.
4. Force Majeure – circumstances beyond reasonable control.
5. Governing law – You must first determine what laws apply to the license agreement. For example if your library is in Kenya and you are licensing content from a database publisher in the United States should the laws of Kenya or the laws of the United States apply to your agreement in the event of a dispute? When negotiating a license agreement with a content provider in another jurisdiction, you will need to determine, discuss, and possibly negotiate which laws apply to the agreement. In the event of a dispute, It will then be cleared to both parties which laws apply to resolve the dispute.
6. Transferability of Assignment – rights and obligations can’t be assigned without agreement of the other party.

Further reading: LINK to examples:

The LIBLICENSE Model License Agreement
http://liblicense.crl.edu/licensing-information/model-license/

The Jisc Model Licences
http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/model_licence

EBLIDA (The European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation) has written an excellent guide: Licensing Digital Resources: How to avoid the legal pit falls
http://www.eblida.org/Activities/Publication/Licensing_digital_resources.pdf