Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/246988
Why License? Section 2 took an interest and the licence. It is also typical for a licensee to pay for your conference attendance fees, research seminars and symposia participation, if it is in the field in which it is seeking to promote the licensed IP. An additional benefit of such on-going relationships is that you will be in an ideal position to know or to find out about the progress of the originally licensed IP (e.g. how much commitment is being made to its promotion, internally and externally). Why license rather than spin-out? The time required and the demands made of you to commercialise IP via a spin-out would probably be considerably greater than by licensing to an established company. An existing firm could include a spin-out which has previously been established for some time, either at your own research institute or at another one. With licensing, following the initial effort needed in getting a firm interested in your IP and the time and effort required in transferring the IP, any continuing involvement by yourself is likely to diminish rapidly. In any event such on-going contact is likely to be self-regulating, in that it would be well controlled through a consultancy and/or research contract. This is a much more controlled interaction for you than with a spin-out, which tends to be a more fluid and dynamic experience and with many more interested parties involved e.g. entrepreneurial managers, private investors, venture capitalists etc., who are more like intermediaries rather than research collaborators – so they apply different goals/pressures. Often your IP will require a large infrastructure to be developed and enhanced, which could be very expensive. There may already be complementary IP, products and services which are present in established firms. An established firm could include a spin-out which has previously been in existence for some time, either at your own research institute or at another one. In these circumstances it makes sense to seek to place your IP in that context, rather than try to raise capital via a spin-out company and ultimately to compete with established players. 13