Intellectual Property or IP is a number of distinct types of legal monopolies over creations or any intangible asset that consists of human knowledge and ideas of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Intellectual property may take the form of copyrights, trademarks, patents, software, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.

To improve quality of services or goods offered to client or to expand the existing business many business owners (Licensee) apply for licensing of Intellectual Property rights. A royalty or a fee is paid to the Intellectual Property owner (Licensor) in exchange for the authorized use of the license. The licensor and licensee usually agrees on those terms and conditions by negotiation. Using Intellectual Property right without the license would be an infringement of IP.

Licensing agreement is broadly categorized as follows:

• Technology License Agreement.
• Trademark Licensing and Franchising Agreement.
• Copyright License Agreement

The licensor license is the right given to the Licensee to use, manufacture, and sell of the products; the licensor receives the revenues from that license but does not take the risk of promoting, manufacturing and selling the products. The licensee has the right to use the Intellectual Property without the expense and risk of the research and the costs of developing the product.

The first step to a clear understanding of Intellectual Property Law is to first know what intellectual property is to begin with. Intellectual property is something that you have created yourself and which only you have the legal right to; this means that if someone else copies your work, he or she is violating this right, and you may file the necessary charges in court.

Trademarks, patents, and copyrights are some of the categories that go with this type of law. For instance, if you use a trademark on a certain product, that product becomes legally yours, and nobody else must be able to use the same trademark and earn money from it as well.

Talking about this thing can be quite confusing because unlike regular property that you can see and hold, intellectual property is one that may not even be tangible. It can be very difficult, indeed, to measure the value of the assets of this kind of property.

The basic thing to remember about intellectual property rights is that you have the right to own a copyright, a patent or a trademark. If you therefore have created something (be it an idea or a product or something else) that you don’t want people to steal it from you and worse, earn profit from it, then you can file for a patent. Better yet, hire the services of an intellectual property rights lawyer to help you through all these.