Data licensing is granting another party permission to use data you control, for a defined purpose, period and price, while you keep ownership. In AI, a company typically licenses records so a developer can train or evaluate models on them. The license, not the file transfer, sets what the buyer may do.
Why it matters when licensing company data
A license differs from a sale of the data itself: the company usually keeps the records and can, unless it grants exclusivity, license them again. The agreement names the permitted uses (training, evaluation, retrieval), whether the license is exclusive, how personal information is handled, how long the buyer may keep the data and how payment works.
Most company-records deals published so far are licenses priced as a flat fee or a revenue share. See how to license company data and how data licenses are priced.
Source
Cornell Law School LII: license. Definition reviewed November 7, 2026 by Origin Data Partners.