WARF FAQs: What is a license agreement?

What is a licensing agreement and what does it include?
Jennifer Gottwald says, "A license agreement is the contract that we enter into with a company that gives them rights to practice the invention that we have patented. So, you come to us, you give us your idea, we file a patent application on it, and then we might sign a license with a company that will give them the rights to practice that invention commercially to turn it into a product. This is the fun where we get into all of the discussions about what are they going to pay, what kinds of products are they going to bring to market, how soon are they going to do that, how can we make sure they're going to be doing that? What rights does the government retain in the invention? What rights does the university retain in the invention?"
"It's a pretty long and complex legal agreement that it's my job to negotiate with the help of our WARF attorneys and make sure that we have a fair agreement with the company that allows them to develop and commercialize your technology, but still protects your research, protects the university and makes sure that a fair return of any money they make comes back to support more research."
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