Should Exclusive Licences Come With A Health Warning?

Licensing a patent is often seen as a way of amicably settling a dispute, or bringing a product (covered by the patent) to market, where the owner of the patent is unable to do so themselves.

Exclusive licences are often seen as a treasured right, in that they grant to the licensee exclusivity to exploit an invention (even excluding the owner of the patent) and the right to initiate proceedings for infringement of the patent. However, there are certain requirements for a licence to be deemed exclusive which, if not met, can mean an exclusive licence by name may not be considered an exclusive licence in the eyes of the law.

In this article, we take a look at recent case law surrounding exclusive licensing and how care should be taken both when negotiating and acquiring an exclusive licence.