Licensing

What you need to know

Intellectual property rights are valuable commercial assets. It is important to know what your approach should be to exploiting and licensing these rights.

Licensing – either in or out – allows for the use of the intellectual property rights (IPR) without there being a danger of infringement.

If you own the IPR it may be commercially sensible to license it out as it can allow you to benefit financially from its use. The type of IPR being licensed can vary but includes patents, know how, trade secrets, designs and trade marks. The licensing agreement will need to be drafted carefully to avoid any future prejudice to your rights.

Licensing allows you to use someone else’s IPR via an agreement which will allow you to develop your business or the products that you offer.

How we can help

We provide advice on assignments and licences for IPR, as well as mortgages or securities taken out against IPR. We can also coordinate the registration of such transactions at patent offices around the world.

Our team will advise you on the potential benefits and drawbacks of licensing agreements. They will ensure that any agreement that you enter into will be set up to offer you the best return on your investment.

Trade Mark Licensing

If you are considering  licensing  your brand to others we can advise and prepare an appropriate trade mark licence. If you are considering licensing a brand from others our Trade Mark team can likewise advise and attend to the formal procedures required to record any licence to you of trade mark registrations.