Sale of Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property rights can be exploited for example by either selling (assigning) the right to a third party, or by licensing it to a third party. How you chose to exploit your intellectual property will depend on a number of factors including your business model, the resources available to you, the nature and lifecycle of the product and the manufacturing costs and complexity.

The advantages of selling your intellectual property right is that you will receive a one-off lump sum payment and be released from the continuing responsibility of maintaining, policing and enforcing the right. However, the disadvantages are that, relative to licensing, you risk receiving an overall smaller return on your initial investment. This arises primarily due to the difficulties associated with valuing intellectual property rights in the light of changing market forces.