In developing and protecting the IP of your E-Commerce company, you will have to be careful with contracts. Contracts and IP go hand in hand. No contract that is signed by your company is unimportant and all must be reviewed to make sure that you are maximizing and not damaging IP assets. This is because through contracts, IP rights may be sold or licensed or even given away. Bad contracts can result in litigation.
There is inherent risk in your contracts with employees and contractors, development agreements, web design agreements, agreements to license your product or IP to another company (licenses-out), agreements to license a product or IP from another company (licenses in), distribution agreements, domain name and trademark license agreements, and patent licenses, cross licenses and pools.
Whenever you are using employees, contractors, consultants, or other companies to develop your IP (e.g. a contractor writing software), it is essential that there be a contract with that person or entity before work is started. Even the earliest start of work can give rise to important rights, and the contractor may become the author or owner of its work, or possibly a joint owner. Contracts must specify who owns IP that is created and how the IP will be treated in the future.
The greatest economic value of IP comes from its use in licensing. This can be in the form of product licensing or in the form of pure IP licenses.
At Juris Logium our advisory service includes assisting owners of trademarks or patents and:
- Drafting licensing or franchising agreements to assign to third parties the right to manufacture and market patented products or exploit a registered trademark.
- Drafting deeds of assignment or transfer in which the owner assigns or transfers a trademark or a patent to a third party.
- Drafting distribution contracts of products bearing a particular trademark.
- Drafting of secrecy agreements for precautionary measures when demonstrating an invention or a product.
We also draft and Review:
- End User License Agreement
- Inventions Assignment Agreement
- Non-Disclosure Agreement
- Patent License Agreement
- Software Development Agreement
- Software License Agreement
- Technology Transfer Agreement
- Trademark License Agreement
