As a business owner in California, you want your business to be as successful as possible. One way to do that is to continuously expand and grow through the creation of new and innovative products. As your exciting products hit the marketplace, you will likely need to secure patents, trademarks, and copyrights to protect your intellectual property and ensure that competitors do not use your creations to further their businesses without paying you. Licensing essentially requires other companies to pay you to use your intellectual property.
Negotiating the terms of a licensing agreement
If you have decided to enter into a licensing agreement with another business for the use of your intellectual property, a business attorney can negotiate on your behalf. The agreement will likely contain information regarding:
- The costs owed by the licensee (e.g., recurring fees, lump sum, royalties)
- How long the agreement will last
- Region of use (international, national, regional)
- Whether the agreement will be exclusive
- Rights to reproduce or redistribute
- What happens in the event of a dispute
- Jurisdiction/venue in the event of a lawsuit
Intellectual property is very valuable to the company that created it, as well as the company who seeks to use it. As your attorney works with the licensee’s attorney to negotiate the terms of the deal, it is important to remember that both sides will likely have to compromise in order to come up with a final licensing agreement that is fair to both parties.