A licensing system is provided for transferring license information for at least one license-requiring software component of software-controlled devices. The licensing system comprises a first, portable license data storage medium (3), which is provided with a processor unit (8) and on which at least one license information for the at least one license-requiring software component is stored in a memory unit (9). A second, exchangeable license data storage medium (4; 4.1, 4.2) is provided with a processor unit (10; 10.1, 10.2). A data transfer channel (5) is provided for transferring data between the first license data storage medium (3) and the second license data storage medium (4; 4.1, 4.2). A license detection device (6) is provided which can poll the at least one license information of the first license data storage medium (3) and transfer same to the second license data storage medium (4; 4.1, 4.2) via the data transfer channel (5). The at least one license information can be stored in a memory unit (11; 11.1, 11.2) of the second license data storage medium (4; 4.1, 4.2) and cannot subsequently be polled any longer on the first license data storage medium (3). A license-providing device (7; 7.1, 7.2) is provided which can make available or transfer the at least one license information stored in the memory unit (11; 11.1, 11.2) to the software-controlled device (2) for releasing or blocking the at least one license-requiring software component.