How can I license someone’s patent

To license a patent, you should contact the owner of the patent. Typically, the owner of the patent is the inventor, who is listed on the patent. However, if the inventor has assigned the patent to someone else, that person is the owner you should contact (known in legalese as the “assignee,” they will also be listed on the patent). Once you have contacted the patent’s owner, you should negotiate a licensing fee, which is the amount of money over time you will pay for the right to make, use or sell the patented invention. Sometimes this fee will be setup as a royalty rate, where you pay a certain percentage of your profits to the patent’s owner.

Often times, in negotiating a license, you can attempt to enter into a cross-license agreement. In this situation, you will agree to license one of your own patents in exchange for licensing the other person’s patent. In fact, there are many times that a company obtains a patent more for the bargaining power of later being able to enter into such a cross-licensing agreement, rather than for the ability to stop competitors from using their invention.

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Posted in: FAQ-PATENTS