Management of Licensing

The ever-increasing digitalization of the economy constantly reshapes business models. Licensing business models are being particularly affected by the recent technological evolutions and innovative forms of intellectual property rights' exploitation. The course aims at providing students with such evolutionary scenarios. First, students will learn the basic concepts underlying licensing and about the role of licensing-based business models in the digital economy. Specific focus is made to different industries and areas of applications. Current trends, challenges and opportunities about the evolution of business models in light of digitalisation will be outlined. The course will then focus on actual examples of licensing agreements, so to enable students to learn key competences needed to manage a whole licensing process from the creation/development of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) to their exploitation, both from licensor's and licensee's standpoints. Students will thus become familiar with most common licensing schemes with respect to a broad range of industries and IPRs. A further learning outcome is knowledge of typical licensing agreement models, based on the different types of licensed IPRs. In particular students will gain competence and confidence for engaging in international licensing business relationships and be able to understand the negotiation of licensing agreements, gaining knowledge as to due diligence practices in transactions involving Intellectual Property, audits and fiscal aspects as well as marketing, advertising and promoting licensed products.

Upon completion of the course, students will learn the potential of licensing from the managerial perspective of the business model, and at the same time from a legal standpoint. They will become familiar with different types of IPRs (trademarks, copyright, patents, designs, trade secrets) and how these can be exploited through licensing programs in various industries. They will learn the key structure, rationale and recurrent legal, accounting, and fiscal issues of licensing agreements and protection strategies. Additionally, students will apply knowledge related to running a licensing program, the evaluation of IPRs, and the negotiation of licensing agreements.