A Practical Study How to Lower Costs and Time Negotiating - Licensing Deals between Small and Large Companies

Abstract: Large and small companies of today struggle with technology in‐licensing. Experience is that deals like those are costly, time‐consuming and often break down during negotiations. This paper will investigate a specific core scenario from a legal perspective; based on interviews and literature. Interviews will be performed to study the interests of small and large companies and the problems they encounter dealing with technology licensing. The analysis indicates that large companies have an organizational power structure that pushes standardized rigid agreements, with an effect of limiting the sphere of freedom for smaller companies. It furthermore shows that interests of the both companies differ on topics such as how to regulate the transfer of the technology, ownership of improvements and confidentiality. The results show that legal tools can be used to balance interests, problems and incentives of the actors to create value for both parties in such a core scenario.