Licensing is offered on Monday evenings from 6:40 – 9:40 P.M.
This course covers much of the law and some of the business and economics of licensing intellectual property. Intellectual property is a broad field, including patents, trade secrets, copyrights, semiconductor chip protection, trademarks, trade dress, Internet domain names, and rights of publicity. As a result, licensing of intellectual property takes many different forms in different types of businesses. Research and manufacturing businesses typically license technology, such as patents and trade secrets. They also may license copyrights (for example, in computer programs) and protected semiconductor chip designs. Multimedia businesses often involve simultaneous licensing of multiple copyrighted properties, and virtually every business has a trademark or trade name that might (or must) be licensed.
The course begins with a brief survey of the business goals and risks of licensing and the strategy involved in determining the “scope” of a license. The course then covers practical procedures and skills to be used in serving clients’ needs, including intellectual property audits, negotiating strategy, intellectual property valuation, and special problems of multimedia licensing. Next it raises important legal issues in drafting and finalizing licenses, including general terms and conditions, ambiguities, contractual limitations, implied licensing, and contract enforcement. Finally—to the extent time permits—it will cover areas of special concern, such as antitrust restrictions, international aspects of licensing, tax, and bankruptcy.