Thursday, May 28, 2009

A Call for Your Favorite (Or Least Favorite) IP Clauses

The real "plumbing" of any commercial IP practice is the nitty-gritty of contracts terms. I, for one, as I approach almost 25 years in the practice, still find IP-based agreements, especially licensing agreements, to be a continuing challenge to both my analytical and drafting skills. That said, something that I heard in preparing for the bar exam of the State of Ohio about the time that Ronald Reagan was getting elected president: "When it comes to knowledge, you collectively is always smarter than you individually."

And so--I am reaching out to all of you. I would like to devote periodic posts to issues of IP contract drafting and construction. To do so, I would be most grateful if the readership (whether lawyer or otherwise) would share his/her thoughts. What kinds of IP clauses do you most like, what clauses are most problematic, what kinds of IP contract issues are most troubling, and so on? I will then fashion your comments into posts for the readership. The benefit will hopefully redound to all of us.