If you have a business that offers services, user licenses or other opportunities online, it can make a world of difference to have well-crafted usage agreements in place. These contracts outline the terms of service between your enterprise and the end users. This can help ensure that your business and your customer base can benefit from clearly defined rights and limitations.
You might wonder why such agreements are necessary when a company operates online. Well, for starters, they can help secure business-related intellectual property and help manage the expectations customers have of a business. All in all, clearly defining the rules of engagement in this regard can minimize your business’ legal risks.
Clear license terms
A good place to start is to meticulously define the rights that a license grants to end users. For example, your online product or service can be:
- Accessible to an enterprise
- Limited to a single-user
- Shareable among multiple users
Remember to specify whether your digital offering has:
- A time limitation
- Geographic restrictions
- Perpetual accessibility
An end user should also know the rights of use for your digital offerings. Perhaps they have to download the application to use it. Or maybe it’s software they have to install on their device to gain access. Furthermore, can they make copies of your digital offerings for backup purposes? Don’t forget to assert your rights as the product or service provider to clarify that you are not transferring the ownership of your digital offerings to the end user.
Boundaries for user behavior
You can save yourself a lot of headaches by setting boundaries for user behavior. Boundaries secure your digital creations and cultivate a responsible user base. A good place to start is to disallow:
- Unauthorized content distribution
- Data hacking
- Illegal data disclosure
Don’t forget to clarify ownership for any content end users create using your product. Suppose end users have permission to interact with third-party services within your product. In that case, you should have clear guidelines for such interactions.
Drafting a usage agreement for digital products should be a meticulous process that carefully considers the legal and practical facets of your digital enterprise. With appropriate legal guidance, you can help ensure that you establish clear terms of service that set necessary boundaries for user behavior.