Some inventors believe in allowing the licensee to finance or control their applications. I say that it all depends. In some cases I have the licensee pay, especially if the licensee is going to have people on the patent with us as co-inventors. Yes, there are cases when a corporate engineer, for example, makes critical contributions to the invention. In such cases, the engineer merits his or her name on the patent.

In other cases, we pay. Why? Should there ever be a meltdown between you and your licensee, you may not want the licensee to be able to claim having contributed to the patent, and thereby seek a claim of partial ownership. I try to get enough money in the advance to cover the patent work. Even if I have to use the entire amount of the advance, I will, if appropriate.

This also allows me to control the patent from the standpoint of how it’s sliced up. For example, if I control it, then I may be able to license the same technology, in a slightly different form, to various companies whose products are in dissimilar categories. You’ll need to handle these decisions on a case-by-case basis.

I also try to own the trademarks for similar reasons. It’s all about control of the ip, after all.