What is "Limited License" in Software and Other Licensing Terms

[vitaly]

We are a consulting company and when we deliver the software to our clients the deliverables are divided into 2 parts:

a) client business specific soft which is considered 'work for hire' with all possible rights assigned to the client yada yada yada

b) generic software which remains ours but the clients gets a license to use it in its business. The current terms for the license are as follows:

We grant to Customer a perpetual, irrevocable, limited,
non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide, royalty-free license, without the
right to grant sub-licenses (except that Customer may grant sub-licenses to its
affiliates and/or subsidiaries), to use the Type B Deliverables in furtherance
of Customer's Business.


The client we talk to right now has 2 issues with it:

1) He objects to the word 'limited' in there and asks "what exactly does the 'limited' here means?" and wants to remove it.

2) Does this licensing limit him in any way to sell or merge his company?

[Mr. Knowitall]

1. And?

2. Presumably it is the company that is the customer, so the acquisition of the company would not change the nature of the license; it might raise an issue as to the new company's right to use the licensed software if it assimilates the company or wants to apply it to its operations outside of the acquired company. All of that is a matter of contract, so read the whole of your contract and figure out what your contract says and means.