A license to link? Lowe’s has one

In the course of building a large framed mirror last month—a process which cemented my belief that doing pro-quality wood staining is a black art best left to necromancers—I visited the website for hardware giant Lowe's. While exploring the site, I came across something peculiar: a short Lowe's "customer care" statement on how other website operators can link to Lowe's.

I know what you're thinking: “there are instructions for this?” Indeed there are; Lowe's has actually drafted three separate legal agreements to cover the practice. Two cover situations in which the linking site might use Lowe's images and marks, and for which some kind of license deal makes more sense. The third says only, "If you're linking to Lowes.com, but not using our mark(s)/logo(s) on your site, download the Version A link agreement."

I downloaded it as instructed. The Version A link agreement (PDF) is a two-page document granting "a non-assignable, non-exclusive, royalty-free license solely to create a hypertext link between Licensee’s Internet website, http://www.____________________, and any page of Lowe’s Internet website (http://www.lowes.com) ('the Link'), subject to the following terms and conditions."

The website desiring this “license to link” is supposed to fill in this form and then fax—faxing is the only option—it in to Lowe's and wait for permission. Assuming that permission is granted, the new licensee has the right to create his link, with certain caveats.

• This license shall be limited to a right to create the Link only to any page of Lowe’s website, (http://www.lowes.com). The Link shall be so configured that the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the Lowe’s website (http://www.lowes.com) will be displayed continuously in a user’s browser once that user’s link is completed and throughout the entire duration of that user’s link. Further, Licensee shall not in any way alter, distort, or obscure any portion of the Lowe’s website, through metatags, framing or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Lowe’s.

This permission can be revoked by Lowe's "for any reason." In this case, "Licensee shall immediately terminate the Link."

It all seemed so odd that I contacted Lowe's public relations department and asked if it was the company's position that people need to obtain such a license in order to link to Lowes.com. And if so, what legal basis stood behind this position?

"Managing link agreements is part of protecting our brand," is the polite reply I received. "The process we have in place to handle links to lowes.com is a business decision."

But those wanting to link to a normal Web page on the site certainly don't, as a general rule, need permission to do so; indeed, the Web would be a hugely different place if linking were permission- and form-based. One can see why Lowe's likes such agreements, but it's harder to see why anyone would sign one.

Listing image by Photograph by www.lowes.com