Setting the Stage: Data as a Business Asset

This column presents a new model for licensing and sharing data, one that I call the “Decision Rights Data Licensing Model” (or the “Decision Rights Model,” in a shorter form) and one that has been met with acceptance in commercial transactions. The Decision Rights Model addresses current business and legal needs in licensing data in today’s environment. It’s a landscape where data has catapulted into a new business asset class, where as an asset class, it has distinctive features that distinguish it from traditional asset classes, and where conventional business and legal methodologies used with older classes do not readily address the business and legal risks and opportunities presented when commercializing data and protecting a company’s right to control the use of its data are necessary.