Target Audience: Information professionals in firms, corporations, and law schools conducting research or supporting courses in the areas of patent licensing/law, IP and technology; individuals doing corporate intelligence, mergers and acquisitions, or corporate due diligence searching Learning Outcomes: 1. Participants will become familiar with licensing law and gain insight into the information needs of technology and patent licensing lawyers. 2. Participants will be able to utilize best practices research techniques and the most appropriate print and electronic sources for licensing, technology transfer and royalty rate research.
Researching issues associated with patent/technology licensing agreements, such as royalty rates, can be complicated, time-consuming tasks. License agreements, which grant rights in patents, copyrights, trademarks or other Intellectual Property (IP), typically include provisions for addressing upfront payments, royalty payments (often based on a percentage of the licensee's sales), IP ownership issues, and IP infringement issues. Not all of the information needed to effectively address these issues is easily found or publically available, which creates the need for researchers to use a number of print and electronic sources and different search techniques. A high-tech and biotech industry licensing lawyer, who also teaches licensing law courses, will give a broad overview of patent/technology licensing and describe the types of information licensing attorneys typically request of their law library. An IP law firm librarian will discuss the core collection of print and electronic sources for locating license agreements and royalty rates. Best practices research techniques will also be shared for licensing and royalty rate research and its usefulness for competitive intelligence, mergers and acquisitions, corporate due diligence searching, and IP ownership due diligence research.