Licensing

Licensing of rights and intellectual property can enhance and exploit the business offering. It can cover a variety of areas from new technology, commoditised software, platform sharing or offerings to bespoke arrangements. The commercial exploitation of differing technologies may be supported by letters of intent, heads of terms, collaboration arrangements and confidentially agreements (NDAs). In an entrepreneurial environment the parties may need to consider R&D arrangements, development agreements and staged commercialisation triggers.

The licensing in and the licensing out of technology or software can bring with it diverse commercial considerations such as whether to form a joint venture. Patents, knowhow licensing and technology transfer arrangements all form part of the myriad that makes up the legal arrangements. These, together with the internal and intragroup arrangements and third party licence terms, can make for a sophisticated set of structures.  

The Stevens & Bolton Commercial and IP teams have significant experience across a number of sectors including life sciences, clean and renewable energy, and technology investment. In addition the teams deal with licensing in the context of platform arrangements including retail, fin tech and insurance sectors. For more details see our IT and commercial pages. Our retail and franchising team deal with the brand licensing aspects of commercial arrangements. For more details see our retail and commercial pages.

We work closely with in-house and commercial teams to support them to deal with

• NDAs/confidentiality agreements
• Heads of terms and letters of intent
• License  terms and exploitation arrangement
• Interplay of third party licence terms
• Calculation of royalties
• Anti stacking devices
• Commercialisation triggers
• Non competes
• Linked supply agreements
• Research and development agreements
• Collaboration arrangements
• Joint ventures
• Group IP and intragroup arrangements
• Platform arrangements
• Brand licensing

Examples of our work

1. Retainer to advise a major biologics company working with the global licensing team to advise on, and to prepare and negotiate both licences out and licences in. The nature of these agreements varies although they are predominantly research evaluation and commercial licences, as well as technology transfer agreements and associated agreements relating to novation and termination.
2. Advising Aim listed clean tech energy long term client on its IP portfolio and intragroup licencing arrangements together with  licensing out to major well known energy company of rights in a number of sectors and joint venture arrangements.
3. Termination and exit from long-term licencing arrangements with complex royalty structures for a major worldwide generics company and entering into new licencing arrangements with additional supply contracts.
4. Advising on licencing structures together with manufacturing arrangements of new forms of co-firing technology in the renewable energy sector.
5. Advising university spinouts on collaboration and research and development agreements and licensing of the rights.
6. Negotiating and drafting of manufacturing and development agreements to support major outsource manufacturing arrangements using client templates.