If you’ve taken the
necessary steps to register your copyrighted works, you inevitably will have an
opportunity to royalties off of them. To take advantage of the opportunity, you
will need to be familiar with copyright license agreements.
If you’ve taken the
necessary steps to register your copyrighted
works, you inevitably will
have an opportunity to royalties off of them. To take advantage of the
opportunity, you will need to be familiar with copyright license agreements.
Copyright License
Agreement
A copyright license
agreement sets for the terms
under which a third party can use your content. In legal language, you will the
“licensor” with the other party being the “licensee.” The purpose of the
agreement is to set forth the terms under which you, the licensor, will grant
the third party, licensee, the right to use, publish or reuse your copyrighted
work in exchange for a royalty. Let’s take a closer look at key components of
the licensing agreement.
Specific Rights Granted
This may sound obvious,
but the agreement needs to detail exactly what copyrighted material can be
used. If you have copyrighted articles, are you granting a right to use all of
the articles or only certain ones? It is highly recommended that the agreement
contain a detailed description of the exact materials being covered.
Once you agree upon the
exact materials, you need to determine any restrictions on how the material can
be used. Can the material be used on the Internet or will it be restricted to a
certain niche’ such as manuals or collections of materials?
An extremely important
issue is whether the agreement grants exclusive or non-exclusive rights. In
English, this simply defines whether the licensor can grant similar rights to
other parties. The grant of exclusive licenses should require a much larger
royalty rate since you are essentially betting the third party will be
successful.
Licensing Royalties
In exchange for your
copyrighted work, the third party is going to make royalty payments to you. The
particular amount of the royalty is dependent upon the nature of your work.
Issues to consider include:
1) Will you be paid a
flat amount or percentage of sales?
2) If a percentage, will
it be figured from gross revenues or something less?
3) How often will you be
paid?
4) What rights will you
have to audit the books of the third party to determine you are getting the
full royalty?
In some situations, you
may decide to forgo a royalty payment. This usually occurs when the third party
will use the materials in manner that produces massive publicity for you. For
example, many professionals seek to right columns for publications as a
marketing tool. Often, they will not charge the publication for the material
because the resulting publicity carries enough of a benefit.
In Closing
If you are
considering licensing copyrighted content, keep the above in mind. Since such
agreements are difficult to break, hiring an attorney is worth the expense.
How ANT Lawyers Could
Help Your Business?
Please click here to learn more about ANT Lawyers IP Practice or contact our
IP lawyers in Vietnam for advice via email ant@antlawyers.vn or
call our office at (+84) 24 32 23 27 71
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