What can be Licensed?

Almost anything can be licensed as long as it contains a protectable property right. These IP rights can be legally protected through the use of patents, trademarks, copyrights, know-how and trade secrets. Licensing allows a person to use someone else’s protected legal IP rights under the terms and conditions established in a license agreement.

There are many types of licensable IP rights. We often speak of “technology” as being licensable. Technology typically relates to useful products, materials, machines, processes, or methods, which incorporate a practical or industrial character, such as a new pharmaceutical. Once legal requirements are met, new technology can be legally protected by a government-issued patent and can then be licensed by the patent holder to a licensee for their use. Technology in the form of a trade secret or know-how also may be licensed.

New expressions of ideas in the form of literary and artistic works such as books, paintings, sculptures, motion pictures and musical compositions are protected by copyrights. Copyrightable expressions also come in the form of practical objects such as computer programs, product label designs, and architectural works. In this case, a person may use

(e.g., copy, perform, distribute, make derivative works of) a copyrighted expression only by permission of the copyright holder.

Trademark and similar rights may be established through use of a name, logo, symbol, or other identifying characteristic, which associates a trademark with the source of a product or service. A trademark right (based on associating goodwill with a mark) may also be licensed to

another person. Again, the common element among all of these forms of “licensable”

properties is that each contains a legally protectable right, which is protected in one of three ways:

1. The IP right is protected by a government granted patent or copyright and is protected against infringement by legal statutes;

2. The IP right is established by use and is recognized through statutes in the form of a trademark;

3. The IP right is established by conduct (maintaining secrecy) or through a contract, in the case of a trade secret and know-how. These are also recognized and protected through legal statutes. Without a protectable legal right, anyone may make, reproduce, or sell a product or process developed by another.

Source: The Basic of Licensing by Licensing Executive Society Inc.