Licensing = Marketing

Koos Rasser, former Chief Patent Counsel at P&G, equated licensing and marketing in his speech Streamlining R&D´s Role in the Licensing Process. Rasser emphasized how the licensing process needs to maximize the value of technology to third parties -- in order to make that technology most attractive to them. This is sometimes contrary to intuition about describing technology. Rasser has summarized, in fact, the essence of what yet2.com strives to offer to the licensing marketplace: a unique listing service that provides not only technology accomplishments, but also application suggestions and applied possibilities across industries.

Rasser drew on his experience as Chief Patent Counsel at P&G to advise the audience about how to prepare a technology for license. First, a packaged description of the technology should also include any enabling technologies, synergistic technologies, or technology to help protect the base technology being described. Second, market research or other applied data would be useful. Third, adding in unpatented or patent pending technology will help to sell the technology better. Fourth, a description should focus on the functional attributes of the technology being summarized. R&D can participate not only in helping to prepare the technology packages, but also in participating in negotiations, adding the tacit knowledge and know-how that might also accompany technology packages.

Rasser´s comments as a patent attorney were echoed by Jeremy Bentham´s speech on Shell´s experience that learning how to market technology was difficult. Like many aspects of transitioning an R&D organization, these speakers emphasized the process.