Profit From Your Idea: How to Make Smart Licensing Deals

by Richard Stim Attorney

Overview

Profit From Your Idea is a comprehensive, easy-to-read guide to finding and negotiating licensing deals to make money from your invention.

You've got a great idea that you think has commercial potential. But finding a partner you can trust, hashing out a fair licensing deal, and getting your idea to the marketplace can be tricky. Profit From Your Idea explains how to minimize risks and maximize the chances of earning a profit.

This layperson's guide streamlines the licensing process, enabling inventors to make a smooth transition from innovator to licensor. In this book, learn how to:

• sort out ownership rights
• protect legal rights and trade secrets
• find and solicit prospective licensees
• work effectively with licensing agents
• negotiate and draft licensing agreements, and
• navigate post-agreement changes and issues

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781413331196
Publisher:	NOLO
Publication date:	10/31/2023
Edition description:	Eleventh Edition
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	1,066,514
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Attorney Richard Stim specializes in small business, copyright, patents, and trademark issues. He is the author of many Nolo books, including Music Law: How to Run Your Band's Business, Patent, Copyright & Trademark: An Intellectual Property Desk Reference,. and Profit From Your Idea. Stim regularly answers readers' intellectual property questions at Dear Rich: An Intellectual Property Blog.

Table of Contents

1. Gearing Up to License Your Invention 2. Intellectual Property Protection 3. Ownership Issues for Inventor Employees 4. Invention Financing and Joint Ownership 5. Licensing Agents and Representatives 6. Soliciting Potential Licensees 7. Protecting Confidential Information 8. The Key Elements of Your Agreement 9. Money: It Matters 10. Negotiating Your Agreement 11. Sample Agreement 12. Warranties, Indemnification, and Proprietary Rights Provisions 13. Termination and Post Termination 14. Boilerplate and Standard Provisions 15. Service Provisions 16. Handling the Licensee’s Agreement 17. After You Sign the Agreement 18. Help Beyond This Book Appendix: How to Use the Interactive Forms Index

What People are Saying About This

Joyce Lain Kennedy

"Offers a lot of advice. Stim covers all the essential factors in his book."--(Joyce Lain Kennedy, Syndicated Columnist)

Interviews

In a survey of inventors, almost three-quarters believed their patents would earn them at least a million dollars. Over half thought their earnings would exceed $5 million. In reality, only 3% to 5% of patents earn money. In other words, no matter how hard it is to design and patent an idea, making money from that great idea is even harder. One reason this book continues to sell after twenty years is that, unlike the many get-rich-quick books that have come and gone,Profit From Your Idea is steeped in reality. I designed this book to protect inventors at every stage of the licensing process, from finding and negotiating that lucrative license to shielding inventors from unnecessary losses by honestly evaluating commercial potential. I believe this reality check is what keeps Profit From Your Idea a perennial seller.

Editorial Reviews

Tells inventors everything they need to know to enter into a solid licensing agreement.

Electronics Now

With an array of forms on disk, in combination with the insights of intellectual property attorney Stim, inventors can hold onto the titles and profits of their inventions rather than sell out to companies.

Book News

Gives detailed instructions on working with manufacturers, marketers and distributors, and addresses issues on copyright and trademark laws, ownership, finances and much more.

Baton Rouge Advocate

Excellent . . .

San Francisco Chronicle

Tells prospective entrepreneurs how to move an idea 'from thought to bought' -- and roughly what inventors can expect to get in a licensing deal.

Los Angeles Times

Gives detailed instructions on working with manufacturers, marketers and distributors...” Baton Rouge Advocate

“Tells prospective entrepreneurs how to move an idea ‘from thought to bought’—and roughly what inventors can expect to get in a licensing deal.” Los Angeles Times

“Tells inventors everything they need to know to enter into a solid licensing agreement.” Electronic News

"Stim, an intellectual property attorney and author, explains how to make licensing deals for inventions. He addresses ownership rights, including determining legal rights and protecting them under patent, trade secret, and copyright laws; soliciting licenses and dealing with agents, finding and soliciting prospective licensees, and protecting trade secrets during the solicitation and negotiation process; the license agreement, including its elements, how to keep information confidential, money aspects, the negotiation process, and drafting the licensing agreement oneself; and dealing with licensee changes to the agreement and issues that might come up after signing it. This edition has been updated with current licensing law and patent rules and covers the implications of the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016."Eithne O"Leyne, Editor, Ringgold, Inc. ProtoView

From the Publisher

Tells inventors everything they need to know to enter into a solid licensing agreement.” Electronic News

Electronic News

Thorough, accurate and well presented... This book is a tremendous asset for an inventor with the desire and inclination to do it yourself.' As an intellectual property attorney specializing in licensing transactions, I have enjoyed paging through this book and brushing up on a variety of issues, and yes, even learning a thing or two!
— Greg S. Weber, Esq.

Creative Media Law Group