Intellectual Property Agreements: Assigning and Licensing Your Intellectual Property

Assignments and licensing are two forms of intellectual property agreements. Both have major implications and should be carefully considered.

What you’ll discover:

Things to Look for While Assigning IP
Considerations When Licensing Intellectual Property
Remember that scale is irrelevant.

When it comes to selling your intellectual property, two forms of agreements are often used: assignments and licenses. Whether you’re a software developer selling your newest application to a huge corporation or a writer submitting completed online material, both sorts of agreements may have important ramifications and should be thoroughly evaluated before concluding.

Things to Look for While Assigning IP

An intellectual property assignment is the transfer of intellectual property rights from one party to another, generally for monetary compensation. The transfer is complete, which means you will no longer be allowed to utilize your intellectual property once another party possesses it. This emphasizes the need of paying close attention to the conditions of the Assignment Agreement. If you want to utilize any of the intellectual property, be sure the transfer agreement contains a clause that allows you to do so. If you are just transferring completed work, it is sound business practice to link the actual transfer of property to payment receipt. Otherwise, you risk losing control of your intellectual property without compensation.

Considerations When Licensing Intellectual Property

Licensing is similar in concept to assignment, with one important distinction. You never give up ownership of your intellectual property, but rather allow another party to utilize it without infringing on your rights. You retain complete control of the IP. Although both intellectual property agreements are identical, licensing necessitates extra rules. When creating a License Agreement, be sure you state the licensing terms clearly and explicitly. Pay special attention to the license’s scope of usage and the manner in which you should be reimbursed for licensing.

Remember that scale is irrelevant.

Although it may seem that assignments and licenses are only applicable to bigger firms, keep in mind that they do not have to be official. Informal IP agreements may also be legally enforceable, so preserve a backup copy of anything related to transferring and utilizing your IP, particularly if you’re a freelancer. Even an email may be seen as a legally binding agreement.