Do We Own the Data in Our Software Tools? What to Check Before Licensing It
By Andrew Smart, founder of MON$TER · About
Most companies run on software they subscribe to: a CRM, an ERP, a help desk, an accounting tool. So a common question before licensing is: is that data ours to license, or does it belong to the software company?
The usual answer
In many business software agreements, the customer keeps ownership of the data it puts in, and the vendor gets limited rights to host and process it. But wording varies, so check your own agreements rather than assume. This is general information, not legal advice.
Four things to check
- Ownership clause: does the agreement say customer data belongs to you?
- Export rights: can you pull full exports in a usable format, and is there any limit on what you do with them?
- Third-party data: some tools mix in data the vendor licenses from others, such as enrichment or benchmark fields. That part may not be yours to license.
- Your customers' contracts and your privacy policy: owning the records doesn't always mean you can share them. See does our privacy policy allow data licensing?
Why buyers care
Buyers want clean rights. They will ask where the data came from and whether you can grant a license, which is what data provenance is about. Clear answers here make review faster and reduce risk on both sides.
A simple way to start
- List each system and what it holds in a data inventory
- Pull the current terms for each tool and flag the ownership and export sections
- Mark any vendor-supplied or enrichment fields to leave out
- Ask your attorney to confirm before signing anything. See do I need a lawyer to license data?
Next step
Published MON$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. Buyers see a description first, never your raw data. Get a free valuation at /estimate/ or start at Business Data.