Risks Of An Unrestricted License

The recent case of Edgenet, Inc. v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. (7th Cir., No. 10-1335, 9/2/11) illustrates the principle that a copyright license without restrictions will be broadly construed to encompass all rights. The facts of the case were that Home Depot had contracted in 2004 with Edgenet for Edgenet to develop a classification system (called a "taxonomy") that was to be used to organize Home Depot's product database. For example, as the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals suggested, a particular screwdriver part might be classified under "tools/manual/screwdriver/Phillips/bits/metal", and that classification would form part of the taxonomy. Under the contract, Edgenet retained ownership of the taxonomy but granted Home Depot a license to use it for so long as Edgenet remained Home Depot's data-pool vendor. On termination of the contract, the license terminated, and Home Depot was required at that time immediately to stop using the taxonomy unless it exercised an