Academic

Jorda on: The Criticality of Trade Secrets in Technology Licensing and Tech Transfer

[A]nent the criticality of Trade Secrets in technology licensing (also in franchising), let’s be mindful that over 80% of technology licenses cover Trade Secrets or are hybrid licenses covering Patents and Trade Secrets. Furthermore, it is indisputable that licenses under Patents without access to the associated or collateral know-how are often insufficient to practice the patented technology commercially. A patent specification is often too brief and too general and discloses only embryonic or rudimentary R&D results rather than the ultimate scaled-up commercial embodiment.

I have authoritative quotations from experts about the overarching role of Trade Secrets in technology licensing. For starters, let me recite just one from Mel Jager.

“Trade Secrets are a component of almost every technology license … (and) can increase the value of a license up to three times to ten times the value of the deal if no Trade Secrets are involved.”

Thus, as a licensor you would leave money on the table, if you did not include Trade Secrets in the transaction.

Full post as published by Jorda on Trade Secrets on September 28, 2007 (boomark / email).