If you get to the point that a company wants to cut a licensing deal, you’ll find the licensing agreements in Appendix B invaluable. These sample agreements are worth many thousands of dollars in terms of the time, experience, and effort put into crafting them. You or your lawyer may want to use them as the basis for your agreements, or you may want go through them, cherry-picking clauses and terms that you find appropriate to your situation.

It is my hope that these agreements alert you and your legal counsel to many points that either have been omitted entirely from a manufacturer boilerplate contract or are written entirely from the manufacturer perspective. Some manufacturers have standard licensing agreements they prefer to use. Others will ask you to submit your own. In either case, most issues usually are negotiable.

My dad taught me that contracts are only as good as the people who sign them. Remember this. Do not make a deal with people you don’t trust, no matter how much you feel the agreement is in your favor.

He also instructed me that every deal has its own spirit and that I should always be clear about the spirit of any agreement I execute. Often I will articulate such an understanding and put it on record through e-mails to my prospective licensee. Even if not part of a formal agreement, should push ever come to shove in a court of law, a judge and jury would probably not disregard the e-mails.