Do I Need a Lawyer to License My Company's Data to AI Companies?
By Andrew Smart, founder of MON$TER · About
Short answer: for any real licensing deal, yes, you should have an attorney review it. You don't need one to find out what your data might be worth, but you do want one before you sign anything.
This page is general information, not legal advice.
What you can do before calling a lawyer
- Get a free estimate. Learn whether your data is likely to interest buyers at /estimate/. No raw data changes hands.
- List what you have. What systems hold your data, how many years, how many records.
- Gather your agreements. Your privacy policy, terms of service and key customer contracts.
What an attorney typically reviews
- Your right to license: whether your contracts and policies let you use the data this way. See is it legal to sell business data to AI?
- Privacy: how personal information is removed and which laws apply. See what counts as PII.
- The license terms: scope, permitted uses, exclusivity, term, renewal and a ban on re-identifying anyone. See key data licensing agreement terms.
- Data handling: often a data processing agreement.
Questions worth asking your attorney
- Do our customer contracts or privacy policy limit how we can use this data?
- Do we need to give anyone notice or get consent first?
- Which license terms protect us if a buyer misuses the data?
Is it worth the legal cost?
Published MON$TER ranges: an exclusive one-time sale typically lands at $50K-$1M, and a non-exclusive recurring license typically runs $300K-$3M per year. No amount is guaranteed and not every company qualifies. Many owners start with the free valuation, then bring in their attorney once there is something concrete to review. Start at Business Data.