Grow through licensing.
Protect what
you’ve built.
When another business wants to use your brand or original materials, the terms shape your compensation, your control, and your next opportunities.
We help founders review, structure, and negotiate intellectual property licensing relationships with those decisions in mind. We advise businesses granting rights to their own intellectual property and businesses seeking permission to use someone else’s.
Plan Your Licensing Strategy ↗
Your intellectual property
is part of the deal.
Licensing can open new markets and income streams. Start with clear terms for what you’re granting and what you’re keeping.
Use
What can your partner use, and where?
Compensation
How will you be paid and track that payment?
Control
What happens when the relationship changes?
We start with your goals and assets, then help define the rights and responsibilities.
What are you licensing?
A new partner, proposed agreement, or growing platform is a good time to review the rights involved.
Your name. Your standards.
A company wants to use your trademark or logo. Define permitted uses, approvals, and brand standards.
Your work. A wider audience.
A partner wants to share or adapt your original materials. Clarify distribution, reuse, and ownership.
More contributors. Clear permissions.
You’re bringing together content from several partners. Identify who owns each contribution and who can authorize its use.
Understand the terms
behind the opportunity.
Ownership & authority
Who owns the assets? Which existing agreements affect them? We review the ownership picture and the rights each party can grant.
Scope & exclusivity
What may be used, for which products or services, in which markets, and for how long? We assess sublicensing, exclusivity, and the rights you need to reserve for future opportunities.
Compensation & accountability
How are royalties or other payments calculated? We help define payment terms, permitted deductions, reporting, audit rights, and agreed performance requirements.
Brand standards & approvals
How will your reputation be protected? We address quality standards, approval procedures, monitoring, and the steps to take when use falls outside the agreement.
New materials & improvements
Who controls adaptations, updates, and jointly developed materials? We help distinguish existing assets from new work and document the rights each party will have.
Termination, transitions & sale
What happens if the relationship ends or either business changes hands? We review termination, assignment, change of control, remaining inventory, and any continuing use.
From the first conversation
to terms you can work with.
Understand the opportunity.
We review your goals, the intellectual property involved, the proposed relationship, and the agreements you provide. We identify the decisions and documents that need attention.
Work through the terms.
Within your agreed engagement, we prepare or review the appropriate agreements, explain the tradeoffs, and negotiate the provisions that matter to your business.
Keep the relationship clear.
We explain the obligations you’ll need to manage and advise on agreed follow-up work. Ongoing counsel can support renewals, new partners, and changes to the relationship.
Know what’s included
and what comes next.
Your proposal will identify the agreements, negotiation work, and ongoing support included in the engagement. Depending on your needs, the work may include:
- An ownership and existing-agreement review.
- A licensing structure and prioritized agreement plan.
- Drafted or reviewed licensing and related IP agreements.
- Negotiation support and explanations of key terms.
- Implementation guidance and an agreed scope for ongoing advice.
The scope, investment, and timing are set out before the engagement begins. A single licensing project and ongoing portfolio counsel require different levels of support.
One relationship can involve
several sets of rights.
Consider a platform that brings together a founder’s brand and several partners’ original materials. The founder needs to understand which assets the business owns, which it licenses, and what permissions its customers or partners will receive.
We help organize those IP questions and coordinate with your other advisers when the transaction also involves corporate, tax, privacy, or other specialist work.
A clear starting point for a complex project.
- Map the assets, owners, contributors, and existing permissions.
- Identify rights needed for the proposed business model.
- Prioritize the agreements and unresolved terms.
- Prepare, review, and negotiate within the agreed scope.
- Document responsibilities, approvals, and next steps.
This example illustrates our proposed approach. It is not a client case study or a representation of a particular outcome.
A team that understands
the rights behind your business.
Watson & Young PLLC was founded by Zara Watson-Young, Esq. and Sean P. Young, Esq. Our practice focuses on trademark and copyright protection, IP agreements, and enforcement.
We bring those areas together when reviewing a licensing relationship, so the permissions in your agreement reflect the intellectual property you own or have the right to use. We explain the terms, help identify gaps, and coordinate with your other advisers within the agreed scope.
Discuss Your Licensing Opportunity ↗
Several partners.
A coordinated licensing plan.
As your licensing relationships grow, new agreements need to work alongside the commitments you’ve already made. We review existing licenses, exclusivity obligations, territories, renewal dates, and the rights available to grant.
We also help define whether a partner may sublicense your intellectual property, who can approve that use, and what reporting and brand standards should apply. Ongoing IP counsel can support portfolio tracking, renewals, amendments, and new partner agreements under a defined engagement.
Before you license.
Can I license my intellectual property while retaining ownership?
A license can grant specified rights while ownership stays with the owner. The agreement needs to clearly define those permissions and distinguish them from any assignment of ownership. We review the arrangement and the rights you intend to keep.
Can you review or negotiate an agreement someone else prepared?
Yes. We can review proposed IP licensing terms, explain their effect, recommend revisions, and provide negotiation support within an agreed engagement.
Can you help with royalties and exclusivity?
We help structure and negotiate legal terms for compensation, reporting, exclusivity, and performance. We work from your commercial goals and coordinate with financial or tax advisers where their expertise is needed.
What if several people contributed the content?
We review who created the materials, the relevant contracts, and the permissions already in place. The goal is to identify the rights the business has and what additional agreements may be needed.
Is licensing the same as franchising?
They can overlap. Depending on the trademark rights, operational control or assistance, and required payments, an arrangement called a license may fall under franchise laws. We identify when that question needs closer review and coordinate with franchise counsel as appropriate. Full franchise compliance is a separate scope of work.
What about international licensing or several licensing partners?
Territory, local legal requirements, existing commitments, and the rights available to grant all matter. We review your IP needs, define our role, and coordinate with local or other specialist counsel where appropriate. Ongoing IP counsel can support multiple relationships under an agreed scope.
Let’s review your licensing opportunity.
The next step is a strategy session focused on your licensing opportunity. Start by sharing your goals, the assets involved, and any proposed or existing agreements. Our team will confirm the appropriate session scope and investment before you book.
For the session, have your agreement drafts, ownership or contributor contracts, existing licenses, and any proposed terms available. We’ll review the information provided, discuss the key IP decisions, and outline the next steps. If further work is needed, you’ll receive a proposal defining the engagement, investment, and timing.
Start Your Strategy Session Inquiry ↗
