"I have been drafting license agreements for the Federal government for 6 years, and this course helped tie together everything I've learned in this time." -- Suzanne Seavello Shope, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Drafting Patent License Agreements April 2010 attendee
Please note that the faculty members listed for this course are subject to change prior to the actual course date.
This course provides concrete drafting and negotiating advice with precise references to existing law — as does the text. The course parallels the text. Lecture charts used throughout the course highlight important aspects of the text. The charts are compiled in a volume that is distributed to the attendees at the start of the program.
The course lays the groundwork for a clause-by-clause examination of all significant elements of the patent licensing agreement. The practical questions always focused on are how and whether each element is sufficient to serve the business needs of the parties while remaining legally viable. The main components of typical licensing agreements, from the opening part through the execution and authentication provisions, are examined in detail. Practical, hypothetical illustrative examples are used, often in workshop form, with carefully crafted problem handouts distributed to the attendees during the course.
Throughout the course, the faculty members emphasize achieving legally satisfactory drafting results by recognizing the logical principles that underlie the job to be done. Sample forms are used to explain the practical considerations upon which they are based. Law and precedent are presented in terms that make clear the legal reasoning behind recommended drafting approaches.
This is a course for the craftsman. Both the course and the text provide a solid basis for responding to virtually every license drafting problem that may arise. Even for the highly experienced licensing lawyer, new insights may be provided; at the very least, the course will be a rich, comprehensive refresher. For the less experienced licensing lawyer, it will open vistas, both with respect to hidden problems and to mechanisms for dealing with them, as the detailed course syllabus suggests.
Legal ethics in license negotiations and misuse issues will be presented from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. on the second day, as currently estimated.