Licensing Your Intellectual Property

So you’re the inventor of American Girls, and you want to be able to sell the rights to make accessories for the dolls without selling the rights to American Girls? You want to know about licensing your intellectual property. Intellectual property licensing is more or less a lease on certain rights having to do with your product. If you’re going to get involved in intellectual property licensing, you will need a contract law attorney or an intellectual property attorney; either one will be knowledgeable about how licensing rights works. You can license part or all of the rights to your works; you can deal only with licensing your logo, like college and professional sports teams routinely do. Licensing intellectual property requires that you pay attention to several things: - Are you licensing intellectual rights exclusively to another company, or can you license to other companies simultaneously? Exclusive licensing should cost more. - How long are you licensing your intellectual property? Be careful! A renewable annual license protects you and your licensee. - Are you licensing the right to sublicense? Can the person you’re licensing intellectual property rights to sublicense

to someone else? - Most importantly, what is your goal in licensing your intellectual property? And are you accomplishing that goal in licensing your intellectual property to this licensee? Always remember that your intellectual property belongs to you, not your licensee; and keep an eye on what they’re doing with your product. Remember that if you don’t include a right to termination for convenience, you are required by law to follow the contract you sign with the person leasing your intellectual property, even if they’re doing things you don’t like. To prevent this, spell out every restriction you want on your intellectual property; don’t leave anything to chance or interpretation.