Licensing Your Intellectual Property - And Getting Paid 

When you license your intellectual property rights, and provided you get the right intellectual property legal advice, your license agreement will set out the terms of payment which will normally include the following;

1. An initial, and potentially further, lump sum payment
2. Regular royalty payments – based usually either on net income, the number of products manufactured or sold, or any other easily verifiable way of assessing value and/or profit
3. Some combination of both lump sum and royalty payments

Further fine tuning of the license with regard to payment are common and include guaranteed minimum payments to the licensor, advance royalty payments and delayed payments.

Unless the only license fee is upfront and paid in full [or alternatively by a fixed payment timetable]  the licensor would be well advised to seek to include in the license agreement itself, a requirement for the licensee to regularly produce a financial report dealing with relevant data [e.g. product sales or profit as appropriate]. It may also be worth considering on behalf of the licensor, a clause permitting the licensor to have access [on strictly defined terms and upon reasonable notice] to the relevant parts of the licensee's financial records to verify relevant and defined data e.g. sales - and for such rights of access to such financial records to continue until the final payment under the license is made to the licensor.

The licensor will also probably want to insert a minimum performance clause in any intellectual property licence – especially if it's an exclusive licence where the income of the licensor is completely reliant on the ability of the licensee to maximise financial exploitation of intellectual property.

Looking for specialist Intellectual Property Legal Advice?
The law surrounding intellectual property is complex and very few lawyers are genuinely IP specialists – we are. So for genuinely specialist city quality Intellectual Property Legal Advice at local prices;

• call us on (01722) 422300 or
• email advice@intellectual-property-lawyer.co.uk

 

 

 

---

 

Home | About | Testimonials | Intellectual Property Articles | Our Intellectual Property Law Services | UK Copyright Law

Design Rights | Patent Solicitors | UK Trademark Law | Intellectual Property Rights 8 Simple Rules | Your Intellectual Property Protectitor Lose It

IP Litigation | FAQ's| Contact

UK Design Rights Lawyers – UK Lawyers providing specialist UK intellectual property services
Bonallack & Bishop Solicitors (76483) authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority