In the age of the Internet, one of the most important tools for licensing is a web page or website featuring your IP licensing opportunity. It’s one of the first places potential licensing partners will go to find information about your intellectual property. If it’s not up to date, or worse, you don’t have one, you’ll miss opportunities to generate qualified leads and ultimately potential licensing deals.
A licensing website can speed up the deal making process. It’s an efficient way of providing all timely information about your IP which means less time spent updating the potential licensee about your IP. A licensing website also explains how the licensing process works, who to contact and what forms to fill out.
Showcasing your IP can be done many ways. Design it with the audience in mind, meaning the licensee. For example, if you invented a new toy the audience would be toy manufacturers. The website should give all the information a toy company would be interested in knowing, such as how the toy works (i.e. videos or animation), who is the target market (boys, girls, toddlers, etc.) the status of any testing or sales, and what rights are available for licensing. Include any new articles, product reviews, presentations, blogs and customers reviews.
I worked with a client who invented a new frequency technology for non-medical treatments of stress, anxiety, rehab, and a number of other physiological and emotional issues. The website included samples of the sound technology, videos and pictures on how its applied in different treatment settings (such as in a hospital, at a doctor’s office, and at home), lots of documents from various research trials, customer experiences and a long list of other studies about the different uses for the technology. Because the technology is “information intensive”, the website was the fastest (and really only way) to present and keep the information up to date.
Create a licensing summary with all the important points about your IP and the licensing opportunity. This summary should include the following:
- One-paragraph introduction to summarize the story
- List of benefits
- List of IP applications
- IP details section: What it is, what it does, why it is better than competitive technologies
- Supporting information: Patent status, links to published information
- Call to action/contact information
Once your licensing website is up and running, social media outlets, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can play a big part in your licensing initiatives. Tweeting test results or live updates from a trade show is one example. Through newsletters and blogs, you can create an ongoing dialogue and get feedback from customers or potential licensing partners. A large fan or potential customer following can make your IP much more appealing to a potential licensee.
Once the licensing page is on-line, monitor feedback from visitors. Update questions and requests for more information on the web page right away. The licensing page is a dynamic marketing tool, and keeping it updated with timely information is an important part of the licensing process.