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Assignment and licensing of IP rights
Assignment and licensing of IP rights
Assignment of rights
Assignment of rights occurs when you sell your IP. For example, you may choose to sell your mousetrap patent to a company that specialises in pest extermination devices instead of going to the expense of setting up a manufacturing plant yourself.
Licensing of rights
Licensing of rights is a fairly common method of exploiting IP. Licensed rights can be exclusive or non-exclusive. They give the licensee the right to use (but not own) the copyright, patent, trade mark or design.
For example, a photographer may license a magazine publisher to use one of his photographs, but may limit the use to one issue, place conditions on how the photograph is to be displayed, and demand a higher fee if the photo is to be used on the cover.
The owner of the rights will usually get payments in return for their use. Payment often takes the form of royalties, although in some cases (such as the example of the photographer above) a one-off payment may be more appropriate.
The value of these rights is a commercial agreement based largely on the intellectual property of the creation or invention.
Cash Engineering Research Pty Ltd provides an
excellent case study of how to turn the intangible into profit through licensing
of IP.
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