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What Every Business Person Needs to Know about Licensing

A couple of years ago, at the State Bar of California’s Section Education Institute, I delivered a one-hour program titled “What Every Business Lawyer Needs to Know about Licensing”. The target audience was attorneys who work with businesses but are not particularly familiar with intellectual property or licensing issues.

The program covered the following topics:

  • The components of a license
  • What can be licensed
  • Business reasons why licenses are used
  • Some of the most-important and most-negotiated license provisions (in many instances with sample language from actual license agreements)
  • Special considerations (exclusivity, assignability, etc.)
  • The license negotiation process
  • Dispute resolution

Because the program was an overview rather than an in-depth examination, I suspected that it might be of interest to non-lawyers, too. My suspicion was confirmed after the session when the cameraman who shot the video said “Good presentation – and I understood it!” This was particularly gratifying because I enjoy educating and speaking to both non-lawyers and lawyers.

I am pleased to make a copy of the What Every Business Lawyer Needs to Know about Licensing program handout (a ten-page outline) available as a Free Download on the Downloads page.

This blog does not provide legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, please contact an attorney directly.