What steps are involved in a licensing process?

The licensing procedure can be started when some type of protection under industrial property rights, for example a patent, has been applied for for the product or service based on an invention. The first step is to find a suitable partner for the invention: a company interested in taking the idea forward. Finding this partner is a sales effort consisting of offering the idea to eligible companies, identifying their willingness to acquire the rights of use to the industrial property rights and assessing their capabilities to productise the idea.

Once the right partner has been found, negotiations are initiated to reach an agreement on the ground rules of licensing which will be documented in the licensing contract. The company, having bought a license by signing the licensing contract, can continue the product development which, in the best-case scenario, will lead to a new product being introduced to the market. If the inventor has, under the licensing contract, undertaken to assist the licensee in developing the product based on the idea, his or her responsibilities do not end upon signing the contract - in fact, the product development stage may require rather close co-operation.