Licensors
As licensors, large and small corporations, universities, and individuals license products, patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property (IP), for one reason: to make money.
NEWSFLASH: Without proper branding, these efforts will fail.
That’s right. Without a unique value proposition — a brand — expressed in customer language (no industry jargon), your product is an island, isolated from the world.
NOTE: Customers don’t buy products and technologies; they buy value-based solutions. If you’re selling the opposite of what people buy, you’ll have a tough time.
According to a 2014 article in Forbes magazine:
Of today’s 2.1M active patents, 95 percent fail to be licensed or commercialized. These unlicensed patents include over 50K high-quality patented inventions developed by universities. More than $5T has been spent in the US alone on research and development over the past 20 years, much of which went to create the very patents that remain unlicensed. According to Forrester Research, “US firms annually waste $1T in underused intellectual property assets by failing to extract the full value of that property through partnerships.” In other words, we’re pouring money — and productivity — down the drain.
An astounding waste of human and financial resources, all of it preventable. Alas, technologists often dismiss branding, thinking the world revolves around products and technologies. It doesn’t.
CEO: Know Brand vs. Trademark
Licensees
Licensees license products and intellectual property because doing so either is cheaper and faster than creating same from scratch, or because creating it would violate intellectual-property protection.
If you are the potential licensee, think of your company’s brand as the employer, the boss, and the product-to-be-licensed as the prospective employee. Brand hires product.
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If the product doesn’t fit your brand, don’t hire (license) it. |
Recommended for All Licensing Parties
PARTING ADVICE
Licensor: Without a strong, unique, compelling brand, your product or intellectual property is just an entity. I can help you change that.
Licensee: Assess your company’s brand to determine whether licensing (hiring) a product or intellectual property is a prudent strategy. I can help you.