Is the IP Assignment Agreement and IP License Agreement the same or different?

Intellectual Property Rights Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), enable the companies to generate remarkable revenue by marketing the products while ensuring their protection. It makes Intellectual Property (IP) comparatively more valuable than tangible property. That’s why it is crucial to safeguard your IP through trademarks, patents, copyrights, or other legal doctrines.

The granted IP rights sometimes provide a more convenient option of earning by allowing you to let any other willing third-party use them in exchange for a fee. In the IP industry, you can transfer your rights to someone else under some legal agreements.

Intellectual Property Assignment Agreements and Intellectual Property Licenses

The agreements that bestow you with the ability to confer your IP rights to others along with ascertaining how they can use them exist in two forms: Assignment Agreements and License Agreements.

Intellectual Property Assignment Agreements

An Intellectual property assignment agreement, whether in the context of an employment or not, is a beneficial contract used to transfer the ownership of a specific IP from one party to another. Under this, you permanently assign all your rights to the assignee in exchange for a specified amount. In other words, this agreement makes you sell the rights to others in the same way as you could vend physical property for a permanent transfer. Generally, you abandon all control, claim, and involvement on the transferred IP rights.

Intellectual Property License Agreement

An intellectual property license agreement or intellectual property facilitates you to permit others to use your IP rights while retaining ownership of the same. Under these contracts, you can trade your patents, trademarks, or copyrights for a specific amount of time.

Difference between the IP License Agreement and IP Assignment Agreement

People often have a query; Is IP Assignment and IP License the same or different. The fact is that both of these documents provide the same ability to transfer your IP rights but under different policies.

Three main differences are as follows:

  1. Interest in Intellectual Property

Interest in the IP is the first thing that differs IP licensing from IP assigning.

IP licensing allows the licensor to permit a licensee to use his IP in a particular way. The owner still retains an interest in the licensed property. It is an agreement that suits the needs of the IP holder who wants to earn profits by selling the IP but without transferring his ownership. It enables you to determine how the party is using your IP and end up the partnership if it lacks the expected advantages. With this, you can obtain a steady income from your partner over a specific period and confer the same rights to several users.

On the other side, IP assigning authorizes the assignor to give all his rights to the assignee in exchange for a fee. The IP assignment agreement permanently ceases the assignor to hold interest in his IP. It means once you assign your IP to someone, you no longer own any responsibility towards the same. You can neither claim nor sue the assignee in regards to any issue related to your IP. These agreements are suitable for those who want to sell their entire business or wish to leave that field.

  1. Notification

The second considerable thing that showcases the difference between these two legal agreements is the requirement of the notification procedure to ensure their enforceability.

In the case of the IP assignment agreement, the owner needs to file an application and notify the assignment recordation branch about his desire to transfer the ownership of the IP. As it allows the permanent transference of the property, the agreement should be in writing. However, the licensor can grant his IP rights (under IP licensing) orally and needn’t necessarily file an application or hold the contract in written form.

  1. Payment and reverse the transfer of IP rights

An intellectual property licensing allows long-term payments, whereas intellectual property assignment agreement expects upfront payments. The IP licensor can reverse the transfer of rights if he finds the partnership unprofitable, but the IP assignor can’t.

What is the importance of these two agreements?

Since these agreements provide the key details including the responsibilities of each party, they establish good relationships, which lead to the development of the IP industry. Once transferred with the help of these documents, the IP rights can stay away from infringement for years and years. But note that an inappropriately formed agreement can reduce your profits by negatively impacting your Intellectual Property Protection. So, you should always set these agreements under the supervision of an experienced attorney, who can assure that all the responsibilities provided in the documents are precise and leave no room for issues. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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