IP and Technology Licensing Attorney
A technology licensing attorney helps you rent out what your company built. Other firms pay to use it. You keep it. Noffke Law writes and negotiates those deals for Michigan businesses. Each license says what they may do, where, for how long, and what they pay you.
How a Technology Licensing Attorney Protects Value
A good license answers one question. What may they do, and on what terms? Four things settle that. How wide the rights go. Whether anyone else can have them. Where they apply. And what happens when the deal ends. We shape each one so the terms match what you are actually willing to give up.
Deciding Who Gets to Say No
Some deals give one company the only rights. Others let you sign ten more. Exclusive deals fetch more money, but they lock you in. If the partner stalls, your product stalls with them. We build in a way out. Miss the sales targets and the rights come back to you.
Building Something Together
Two companies build something jointly. Two questions cause the trouble. Who owns the result? And who controls what gets built on top of it? Settle both in writing on day one. It costs almost nothing then. It costs a great deal once the thing works.
Royalties and Getting Paid
We set up how the money moves. We also set up your right to check it. A royalty you cannot verify is just a number on a page. As your technology licensing attorney, we make sure you can audit the math and act when it is wrong.
Ending a License Without Losing the Asset
Every license ends. The question is what the other side keeps. May they still use your code? May their customers? Do they hand back your materials, or delete them? Write this at the start. Nobody negotiates it well while walking out the door.
How Licensing Shows Up in a Deal
Buyers and lenders dig into two things. Who owns your technology, and what you already promised away. Clean ownership makes your work an asset in that room. A messy file makes it a problem, and problems get priced.
Frequently Asked Questions
It should say what rights you grant and how far they reach. Where they apply. How long they last. And whether anyone else can get the same deal. It should also set out what you get paid, who owns improvements, and what happens after it ends.
Whoever the contract says. That is the whole answer, and it is why the fight starts. With no clear wording, improvements turn into a costly dispute. A good license names the owner up front and says what each side may do with the result.
Software and technology. Brand and trademark. Patent. Content and copyright. And data. Each one can go to a single company or to many. Each can be limited by place, by use, and by how long it runs.
A trademark license must give you real control over quality. Without that control, a court can treat the license as empty. You can even lose rights in your own brand. Patent and copyright licenses carry no such trap.
Often a share of sales. Sometimes a fee per unit, or a flat amount each period. Rates can step down as volume grows. Some deals start with a payment up front that counts against later royalties. Whatever you pick, define the terms tightly and keep the right to audit.
A few years is common, with renewal if both sides want it. Some run for the life of the patent or the copyright. Shorter is usually safer. It gives you a clean point to reprice the deal once you know what the technology is really worth.
Ready to Work Together?
Let's discuss how Noffke Law can become a trusted extension of your team with strategic, practical legal counsel that protects value and drives growth.