Protect Brands

Licensing 

Our licensing expertise is available should you want to license your brand to others, either in the UK or internationally.  We can advise on licensing structures to maximise revenue and maintain good licensee relationships.  Examples of some types of licensing deals are indicated on this page 

Merchandising
Merchandising is licensing another business to use your name and reputation to sell their goods. In the entertainment sector, merchandising is frequently used. People will want to buy T-shirts, or other goods bearing the name and image of their favourite pop group, film character, or football team.

For those who have a name to sell, it is essential that the name or logo is easily marketable, and that they have a reputation that people can relate to. So, anyone aspiring to do merchandising should find themselves a distinctive name and logo, and register them as a trade mark while the name and logo are available to register. Your appeal to merchandisers will increase with a registered trade mark.

A typical merchandising deal will need to be discussed with lawyers.  Points to watch out for include the territorial scope of the agreement, the duration, the nature of the rights granted, quality control issues, methods of distribution, any advances and guaranteed minimum payments, royalties and licence fees, accounting, termination rights, and enforcement.

Sponsorship
This is where the sponsor uses the association between you and their product to increase awareness of the product and to encourage more people to buy it. For example, a sponsor of soft drinks might look for a sponsorship deal with a pop artist who would appeal to teenagers.

A typical licence, which should be negotiated with the assistance of lawyers, will clarify what the sponsor wants you to do or what event they expect to be sponsoring. Also a sponsorship deal could be for a particular tour or for a series of tours. You may decide to have one sponsor at any given time, or a series of sponsors for different products. Other matters to focus on are territorial scope, retention of creative control, how long the agreement is to last, banner advertising, meet and greets obligations, freebies and promotional activities, and payment terms.

Endorsement
Often clothing companies will loan clothes for photo shoots or live appearances in return for a suitably prominent promotion of their name.

What next?

Drafting and negotiating commercial agreements is a standard part of our work.  If you need help drafting or reviewing a trade mark or other licence, or distribution or merchandising agreement please contact us.