CHAPTER 19Structuring Licensing Programs and Agreements

Licensing is a contractual method of developing and exploiting intellectual property by transferring rights of use to third parties without the transfer of ownership. Virtually any proprietary product or service may be the subject of a license agreement, ranging from the licensing of the Mickey Mouse character by Walt Disney Studios in the 1930s to modern-day licensing of computer software and high technology.

From a legal perspective, licensing involves complex issues of contract, tax, antitrust, international, tort, and intellectual property law. From a business perspective, licensing entails a weighing of the advantages of licensing against the disadvantages in comparison to alternative ...

Get Franchising & Licensing, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.