Licensing: Do I need to register company for License Agreement?

Disclaimer - I'm not a lawyer, nor do I want to be. I have ethics and morals and don't see the thril in sucking the last bit of blood from every living organism around me.

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Hey! I am working on License Agreement for my application. Most software License Agreements refer to a company name as the author and the owner of the software.

I don't have a registered company. However I have a web-site, say "pashasoft.com" that is registered on my name. Suppose I refer to Pashasoft in the License Agreement as the author and the owner of the app.

Would that License Agreement be legal? Or I have to register a company to make it legal? Legal licensing link|improve this question asked Sep 1 '09 at 12:38Pavel87213 83% accept rate.

– svinto Sep 1 '09 at 12:40 In Russia, but I my app target audience is located in US – Pavel Sep 2 '09 at 5:09.

Disclaimer - I'm not a lawyer, nor do I want to be. I have ethics and morals and don't see the thril in sucking the last bit of blood from every living organism around me. Since you don't have a company, you could use your own name and file a D/B/A certificate (D/B/A = Doing Business As) so you actually do business as "Pashasoft.com".

Legally, though, you and the company are the same. If the "company" gets sued, there is no protection for you since you are the company. I woud look into the various legal entities for companies for legal protection and tax purposes.

LLC's are fairly straightforward but there are some issues with their recognition outside the US.

This is a serious topic - I'd recommend you to get some professional advice. When it comes to things like that I wouldn't rely on answers on an online board like SO - nevertheless there are really experienced guys around here.

If no entity "Pashasoft" is registered anywhere, that part of Agreement that refers to it would make no sense. Use your own name instead of the company name and that's all. Or better, in the beginning of a document alias your site to "Service" and use it throughout the document.

I suspect using the website would not, strictly speaking, be valid. I think that a company works because it is a recognised legal entity, with rights and responsibilities. Similarly, a person is also recognised as a legal entity, with its own set of rights and responsibility.

So my guess would be that the correct way would be to use your own name. Presumably if your license was such that you agreed to be liable for any damages, etc, that resulted from the use of your program, then that would make you personally liable. That is why software licenses always say 'we own this but you use it at your own risk'.

I have no expertise on this topic, but this is my understanding.

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