Unlocking the Potential of Digital Signature Licitness for Assignment of Intellectual Property in India

How to eSign a document: digital signature licitness for Assignment of intellectual property in India

hello Visionaries welcome or welcome back to my channel my name is Marisa Talbert I'm the founder and CEO of Talbert Law Office your favorite go-to legal resource for all things business nonprofit and intellectual property law so we've been talking about holding companies in a few of my previous videos and I've mentioned the option of an IP holding company in particular I've discussed the fact that holding companies can generate income by leasing assets to its subsidiaries similar to how McDonald's leases land to its franchisees but in this video specifically I just want to focus on the intellectual property so let's jump right into it [Music] do my paper Rising I'm calling out the trenches loading me my life just to recap intellectual property is property of the mind and your creative genius is an asset those assets are generally protected in five ways trademarks copyrights patents Trade Secrets and I like to throw in their contracts if you need help understanding the difference between either one of those I have multiple videos that discuss the differences and I'll link them down in the description box below it is important to note that none of these methods of protection are mutually exclusive what I mean is that you can employ different types of Ip protection for one asset for example let's say you have a business name analogo you can protect both the business name and the logo as a trademark but you could also protect the logo under copyright law as a two-dimensional piece of artwork why because a trademark and a copyright protect different things so you are not limited to protecting your intellectual property with just one method of protection this becomes important when we discuss our topic for today which is whether you should assign or license your intellectual property or as I like to call it whether you should sell or rent your intellectual property I think that just helps to conceptualize it a little bit better so first let's talk about assigning or selling your once you have secured your intellectual property rights meaning that you've trademarked your business name or you protected that recipe through a trade secret or you've copyright protected the lyrics to the song that you wrote sometimes it may be more convenient or valuable to let someone else use your intellectual property in exchange for payment when you assign your IP rights you are essentially selling your rights permanently in exchange for some particular sum of money the same way you would sell real property like your car or your house that's the same thing that happens when you assign your intellectual property rights you transfer all the rights and you relinquish all the control on the flip side you can become a landlord and you can license or rent out your IP when you license your IP rights you maintain ownership you maintain control again going back to the house analogy if you rent out your house you still own it and you can evict a tenant if they don't pay you on time or if they violate the terms of the lease so through a licensing agreement this is where the contracts come in you can rent out your IP for a fee which is called a royalty and your licensing agreement should outline specific terms such as whether you're granting an exclusive or a non-exclusive license this determines whether or not you as the licensor can rent out the same asset to someone else let me explain let's just say that you're a business coach because that seems to be the career of the times right now and you created a methodology that consistently results in your clients doubling their revenue within six months you patent your methodology and now Harvard Business School wants to use your patent to teach your methodology in their business courses you can offer Harvard an exclusive license that restricts you from allowing any other person from using your patent or you got offer Harvard a non-exclusive license which would allow you to license your methodology to Harvard Princeton Yale and Stanford some other considerations among so many that you might consider is where the IP can be used can it only be used in a particular State can it be used Nationwide can it be used worldwide you need to decide what your territory will be for your license you can also determine the length of time that this permission is granted maybe you're granting the use of your IP for six months or for one year or until there's a triggering event that dictates termination of the use you get to decide you can also negotiate how compensation is offered for the use of your IP whether it's a lump sum whether it's a monthly payment whether it's a fixed or variable percentage of gross revenue or some other sales marker there are a lot of considerations to think about when you are negotiating a licensing agreement now remember I mentioned earlier that one asset could be protected in multiple ways so there may be an instance where it's beneficial to assign one part of your IP and license the other so for example let's just say you created a special seasoning that is protected as a trade secret but the name of the seasoning is also protected by a trademark there could be a scenario where you assign the trade secret to a company like McCormick and get you a nice low lump sum and then turn around and license the trademark for a monthly payment or for percentage on gross revenue of all the sales of your seasoning now you've just created passive income for yourself so that's something to think about too this is one of the reasons why it is so important to protect your intellectual property it truly is an investment that can create a huge return so as we wrap this up I want to bring it all together and put a bow on it you can either assign your IP rights which is the equivalent of selling it outright or you can license your IP which is the equivalent of leasing it out for a particular purpose or period of time but you can't do either until you first secure your intellectual property rights which can be done again through either a trademark copyright patent trade secret and like I like to throw in their contracts advantages to assigning your IP rights is generally you get a big lump sum of money all at once the disadvantage is you no longer have control and you no longer have ownership some advantages to licensing include the fact that you get to maintain ownership you get to maintain control you get to create passive income for yourself you get to create new business opportunities and it allows you to enter into new markets or Industries some disadvantages to licensing is the fact that some people can and will abuse the licensing agreement which leads to IP infringement and we going to court another disadvantage to licensing is that a party could use your IP in a way that is damaging or harming to your brand or reputation and then again we go into court well I'll leave it there for now let me know your questions in the comments if you are in the market for a licensing agreement go ahead to talbertlawoffice.com and check out our TLO Marketplace I will link it down in the description box below we have template copyright and trademark licensing agreements for you ready to go right now don't forget share this video with a friend and subscribe if you haven't already thank you so much for watching as always this is Talbert Law Office your favorite go to Legal resource for all things business nonprofit and intellectual property law I'll see you in the next video bye I made it through the