Intellectual property licenses are important for everyone.
For any type of software that you use, you actually agree to the terms laid out in the intellectual property license. The same is true on any social media site wherein there are terms that you agree to before joining the platform. For example,
- For a software license, you agree not to transfer the software to anyone else.
- In social media, you give the social media platform a non-exclusive, transferrable, royalty free license to use your content, such as photographs.
Intellectual Property Licenses
A license is any contract wherein you grant certain rights to your intellectual property to someone else. Or it may be the case that you are the one receiving the rights to the intellectual property. Typically, the rights are granted in exchange for some type of monetary consideration.
You may sell the intellectual property rights for a flat fee or for royalties on any sales that the licensee has or the license may be structured in another way. The important part is understanding that there must be some intellectual property rights, to begin with. Examples include:
From there, you may grant part or all of these rights to another party by way of a licensing agreement.
Licensing Agreements
Licensing agreements may be structured in any way that the parties find agreeable. If you are an individual, you may grant all of your rights to one company in exchange for a royalty on all of their sales. Or you may license all of the rights to the company for one flat fee.
Licensing rights may also allow you to use someone else’s rights. If you need rights to a certain invention before creating your own invention, then you may license the rights to the first invention before proceeding.
A license allows the owner of the intellectual property to maintain ownership over their intellectual property. This is in contrast to an assignment, which typically conveys total ownership to another party.
As can be understood, licensing agreements are very powerful. As mentioned above, they are very flexible because they can be structured in any way and they can give someone rights to intellectual property that they wouldn’t otherwise have. Another reason that intellectual property licensing agreements are important is that it memorializes the understanding of what rights are being transferred. Thus, there is no confusion over who has rights to what.