“I’d love to start a business, but I don’t know what I want to do.” If you’re asking yourself that question, I’ve good news. A gold mine of intellectual property is just waiting for you to start a business.
Many of the giant corporations in the world have intellectual property just sitting there, ready for a small business or a start-up company to license it.
You’re thinking, “Well, wait a minute. Why would a large corporation do that?” The answer is that many of these large corporations, like Dow, Corning or Hewlett-Packard, or AT&T, have big R&D departments. They create not only intellectual properties related to the products and services they’re offering but also develop offshoots and new developments. And many of these IPs they cannot incubate and bring to the market.
They make these available for small start-up companies interested in licensing these technologies. It’s a great opportunity because it opens the resources of these companies. After all, they want you to succeed with their IP in the market. If you successfully launch their IP into the market, they will keep an eye on you. Then if you build it up to five or ten, or twenty million dollars, they may buy you out.
You can go to a company such as AT&T.com. Search their site, and you’ll find information on the technology they are licensing, how their licensing program works, and what types of companies they’re looking for. Can you imagine how quickly you can ramp up the value of your business if you get a license from AT&T to commercialize one of its intellectual property technologies? You’re leveraging their IP, name, and credibility. You bring talent.
There are many corporate IP opportunities, and the key is understanding how to use licensing to take advantage of these. You’ll find these opportunities in different categories, from data management to multi-media, wireless, and more.
These IPs are on the books for these big corporations, but they can’t take advantage of them. What they’re looking for are start-ups that can commercialize them. It’s just sitting there – potential multi-million dollar opportunities – just waiting for smart, savvy entrepreneurs in the world today to license them.
Start researching and do your homework. Take a few hours a day for the next two weeks, and search the internet. It’s an invaluable tool for finding IP opportunities because it gives you access to so much information. When you start collecting this information, opportunities will present themselves.
Licensing is a shortcut to starting a business. And licensing an IP from a big company can be one of the best ways to launch a successful product into the marketplace. The best part is you don’t have to be an expert in licensing. You just have to know how licensing works, how to ask the right questions, and where to find the experts to help you put the licensing deal together.
