Licensing
Licensing is an effective alternative method for academic researchers, institutions and smaller companies to commercial exploit their discoveries without the time demands and risk of setting up or expanding their own businesses. In a typical licensing arrangement, a company (the inlicensor) will acquire the right (either exclusively or non-exclusively) to produce a product based on and idea or discovery in return for paying a lump sum and/or a royalty to the originator (outlicensor), who will retain ownership of the intellectual property.
Demand for new products is growing. Both small and large health technology organisations increasingly realise that they cannot just rely on their own research for future growth and many are developing products based on other people's discoveries by acquiring a license from the inventor or other owner of the intellectual property. Even the biggest multi-national organisations employ large numbers of 'technology scouts' looking for new discoveries in universities, hospitals and research-based companies that they can produce under licence.
In most cases, the originator will need to apply for a patent before licensing a discovery, for which an idea must be “new, inventive, capable of industrial application’’ and not fall into an excluded category (such as mathematical methods, some types of software and business models). The process can be time-consuming and complicated after an initial registration and will normally need the services of a patent attorney. However, without a patent, the rights to an invention can easily be irretrievably lost.
Further information: