The idea of licensing is a proliferating business nowadays. A well-executed, strong licensing relationship brings benefits to all parties to the deal – property owners, licensees, their affiliates, retailers and, ultimately, consumers. Each of those parties has its own goals and aims that ultimately adds value to the final product or service.
Licensors
There are many reasons for an intellectual property owner to grant a license:
- Marketing support for the core business
- Extending a corporate brand into new categories
- Trying out potential new businesses or geographical markets with relatively small upfront risk
- Maintaining control over an original creation
Licensees
Licensees lease the rights to a certain property for incorporation into their merchandise, but traditionally they do not share ownership in it. Nevertheless, licensing provides a number of important functions to them.
- Gaining the consumer awareness and marketing benefit of a well-known brand, character, logo, design
- Moving into new distribution channels
- Reducing in-house costs
- Enhancing authenticity and credibility
Source: http://www.licensing.org/education/intro-to-licensing/why-license/
Watch this video about licensing!