Information about Royalties

Royalties (sometimes, running royalties) are usage-based payments made by one party (the "licensee") to another (the "licensor") for ongoing use of an asset, most typically an intellectual property (IP) right. Royalties are usually determined periodically as a percentage of gross or net sales derived from use of the asset or a fixed price per unit sold. ^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]}. A royalty interest is the right to collect a stream of future royalty payments, often used in the oil and gas industry to describe a percentage ownership of future production or revenues from a given leasehold, which may be divested from the original owner of the asset.^[8]

License agreements

A license agreement defines the terms under which intellectual property such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights is licensed by one party to another, either without restriction or subject to a limitation on term, business or geographic territory, type of product, etc. License agreements are typically private contracts that follow a general structure. However, certain types of franchise agreements have comparable provisions.

Patent royalties

A patent gives the owner an exclusive right to prevent others from practicing the patented technology in the country issuing the patent for the term of the patent. The right may be enforced in a lawsuit for monetary damages or to prohibit use of the patent. In a patent license, royalties are paid to the patent owner in exchange for a license to practice one or more of the four basic patent rights: to manufacture, use, sale, or advertise for sale, a patented technology.

Patent rights may be divided and licensed out in various ways, on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis. The license may be subject to limitations as to time or territory. A license may encompass an entire technology or it may involve a mere component or improvement on a technology. In the United States, "reasonable" royalties may be imposed, both after-the-fact and prospectively, by a court as a remedy for infringement.

Know-how agreements

In addition to licensing the applicable patents, a company may need to learn how to manufacture a product. This knowledge, standing alone or together with a patent license, may be obtained through a know-how license. Know-how is trade secret information in combination with data, techniques, or human and intellectual expertise, that helps a company exploit a licensed technology. Know-how may help a company achieve better operational efficiency, manufacturing productivity, or product/system quality. Know-how royalties may be stated as distinct from patent royalties since their periods of validity vary. The rates vary widely.

Trademark royalties

Trademarks are words, logos, slogans, sounds, or other distinctive expressions that distinguish the source, origin, or sponsorship of a good or service (in which they are generally known as service marks). Trademarks offer the public a means of identifying and assuring themselves of the quality of the good or service. They may bring consumers a sense of security, integrity, belonging, and a variety of intangible appeals. The value that inures to a trademark in terms of public recognition and acceptance is known as goodwill.

A trademark right is an exclusive right to sell or market under that mark within a geographic territory. The rights may be licensed to allow a company other than the owner to sell goods or services under the mark. A company may seek to license a trademark it did not create in order to achieve instant name recognition rather than accepting the cost and risk of entering the market under its own brand that the public does not necessarily know or accept. Licensing a trademark allows the company to take advantage of already-established goodwill and brand identification.

Like patent royalties, trademark royalties may be assessed and divided in a variety of different ways, and are expressed as a percentage of sales volume or income, or a fixed fee per unit sold. When negotiating rates, one way companies value a trademark is to assess the additional profit they will make from increased sales and higher prices (sometimes known as the "relief from royalty") method.

Trademark rights and royalties are often tied up in a variety of other arrangements. Trademarks are often applied to an entire brand of products and not just a single one. Because trademark law has as a public interest goal the protection of a consumer, in terms of getting what they are paying for, trademark licenses are only effective if the company owning the trademark also obtains some assurance in return that the goods will meet its quality standards. When the rights of trademark are licensed along with a know-how, supplies, pooled advertising, etc., the result is often a franchise relationship. Franchise relationships may not specifically assign royalty payments to the trademark license, but may involve monthly fees and percentages of sales, among other payments.

Copyright royalties

Copyright law gives the owner the right to prevent others from copying, creating derivative works, or publicly performing their works. Copyrights, like patent rights, can be divided in many different ways, by the right implicated, by specific geographic or market territories, or by more specific criteria. Each may be the subject of a separate license and royalty arrangements.

Copyright royalties are often very specific to the nature of work and field of endeavor. With respect to music, royalties for performance rights are set by the Library of Congress' Copyright Royalty Board. Mechanical rights to recordings of a performance are usually managed by one of several performance rights organizations. Payments from these organizations to performing artists are known as residuals. Royalty free music provides more direct compensation to the artists. In 1999, recording artists formed the Recording Artists' Coalition to repeal supposedly "technical revisions" to American copyright statutes which would have classified all "sound recordings" as "works for hire," effectively assigning artists copyrights to record labels.^{[9] [10]}

Book authors may sell their copyright to the publisher. Alternately, they might receive as a royalty a certain amount per book sold.

Some photographers and musicians may choose to publish their works for a one-time payment. This is known as a royalty-free license.

Other royalty arrangements

The term 'royalty' also covers areas outside of IP and technology licensing, such as oil, gas, and mineral royalties paid to the owner of a property by a resources development company in exchange for the right to exploit the resource. In a business project the promoter, financier, or other parties who arranged for or otherwise enabled the transaction but are no longer actively interested may have a royalty right to a portion of the income, or profits, of the business. This sort of royalty is often expressed as a contract right to receive money based on a royalty formula, rather than an actual ownership interest in the business. In some businesses this sort of royalty is sometimes called an override.

Other compensation methods

Royalties are only one among many ways of compensating owners for use of an asset. Others include:

*buying the asset outright, possibly with a leaseback arrangement

*offering the licensor an equity position in the licensee company

*staged milestone payments (as in drug development and commissioned software arrangements)

*lump sum payment made to the licensor in one or more installments

*cross-licensing agreements with or without cash payments , and

*entering into a strategic alliance.

In discussing the licensing of IP, the terms valuation and evaluation need to be appreciated.

Evaluation is the process of assessing a license in terms of the specific metrics of a particular negotiation, which may include its circumstances, the geographical spread of licensed rights, product range, market width, licensee competitiveness, growth prospects, etc.

On the other hand, valuation is the fair market value (FMV)of the asset - trademark, patent or know-how - at which it can be sold between a willing buyer and willing seller in the context of best awareness of circumstances. The FMV of the IP, where assessable, may itself be a metric for evaluation.

If an emerging company is listed on the stock market, the market value of its intellectual property can be estimated from the data of the balance sheet using the equivalence:

Market Capitalization = Net Working Capital + Net Fixed Assets + Routine Intangible Assets + IP

where the IP is the residual after deducting the other components from the market valuation of the stock. One of the most significant intangibles may be the work-force.

The method may be quite useful for valuing trademarks of a listed company if it is mainly or the only IP in play (franchising companies).

Approaches to Royalty Rate Determination and Illustrative Royalties

There are three general approaches to assess the applicable royalty rate in the licensing of intellectual property. They are:

: 1. The Cost Approach

: 2. The Comparable Market Approach

: 3. The Income Approach

For a fair evaluation of the royalty rate, the relationship of the parties to the contract should:

: - be at 'arms-length' (related parties such as the subsidiary and the parent
company need to transact as though they were independent parties)

: - be viewed as acting free and without compulsion

The Cost Approach

The Cost Approach considers all the elements of cost that have been employed to create the intellectual property and to seek a royalty rate that will recapture the expense of its development and obtain a return that is commensurate with its expected life. Costs considered could include R&D expenditures, pilot-plant and test-marketing costs, technology upgrading expenses, patent application expenditure and the like.

The method has limited utility since the technology is not priced competitively on 'what the market can bear' principles or in the context of the price of similar technologies. More importantly, by lacking optimization (through additional expense), it may earn below its potential.

However, the method may be appropriate when a technology is licensed out during its R&D phase as happens with venture capital investments or it is licensed out during one of the stages of clinical trials of a pharmaceutical.

In the former case, the venture capitalist obtains an equity position in the company (developing the technology) in exchange for financing a part of the development cost (recovering it, and obtaining an appropriate margin, when the company gets acquired or it goes public through the IPO route).

Recovery of costs, with opportunity of gain, is also feasible when development can be followed stage-wise as shown below for a pharmaceutical undergoing clinical trials (the licensee pays higher royalties for the product as it moves through the normal stages of its development):

Success State of development Royalty rates,% Nature

---

---

---

Pre-clinical success 0-5 in-vitro Phase I (safety) 5-10 100 healthy people Phase II (efficacy) 8-15 300 subjects Phase III (effectiveness) 10-20 several thousand patients Launched product 20+ regulatory body approval

A similar approach is used when custom software is licensed (an in-license). The product is accepted on a royalty schedule depending on the software meeting set stage-wise specifications with acceptable error levels in performance tests.

The Comparable Market Approach

Here the cost and the risk of development are disregarded. The royalty rate is determined from comparing competing or similar technologies in an industry, modified by considerations of useful 'remaining life' of the technology in that industry and contracting elements such as exclusivity provisions, front-end royalties, field of use restrictions, geographic limitations and the 'technology bundle' (the mix of patents, know-how, trade-mark rights, etc.) accompanying it.

Although widely used, the prime difficulty with this method is obtaining access to data on comparable technologies and the terms of the agreements that incorporate them. Fortunately, there are several recognized organizations, among them, RoyaltySource, Royaltystat, Knowledge Express, etc (see 'Royalty Rate Websites' listed at the end of this article) who have comprehensive information on both royalty rates and the principal terms of the agreements of which they are a part. There are also IP-related organizations, such as the Licensing Executives Society, which enable its members to access and share privately assembled data.

The two tables shown below are drawn, selectively, from information that is available with an IP-related organization and on-line.^[11][12] The first depicts the range and distribution of royalty rates in agreements. The second shows the royalty rate ranges in select technology sectors (latter data sourced from: Dan McGavock of IPC Group, Chicago, USA).

Royalty Distribution Analysis in Industry

Industry	Licenses (nos.)	Min. Royalty,%	Max. Royalty,%	Average,%	Median,%
Automotive	35	1.0	15.0	4.7	4.0
Computers	68	0.2	15.0	5.2	4.0
Consumer Gds	90	0.0	17.0	5.5	5.0
Electronics	132	0.5	15.0	4.3	4.0
Healthcare	280	0.1	77.0	5.8	4.8
Internet	47	0.3	40.0	11.7	7.5
Mach.Tools.	84	0.5	26	5.2	4.6
Pharma/Bio	328	0.1	40.0	7.0	5.1
Software	119	0.0	70.0	10.5	6.8

:

Royalty Rate Segmentation in Some Technology Sectors

Industry	2-2%	2-5%	5-10%	10-15%	15-20%	20-25%
Aerospace	50%	50%
Chemical	16.5%	58.1%	24.3%	0.8%	0.4%
Computer	62.5%	31.3%	6.3%
Electronics		50.0%	25.0%	25.0%
Healthcare	3.3%	51.7%	45.0%
Pharmaceuticals	23.6%	32.1%	29.3%	12.5%	1.1%	0.7%
Telecom	40.0%	37.3%	23.6%

Commercial sources also provide information that is invaluable for making comparisons. The following table provides typical information that is obtainable, for instance, from Royaltystat:^[13]

::::Sample License Parameters

Reference: 7787 Effective Date: 10/01/1998 SIC Code: 2870 SEC Filed Date: 07/26/2005 SEC Filer: Eden Bioscience Corp Royalty Rate: 2.000 (%) SEC Filing: 10-Q Royalty Base: Net Sales Agreement Type: Patent Exclusive: Yes Licensor: Cornell Research Foundation, Inc. Licensee: Eden Bioscience Corp. Lump-Sum Pay: Research support is $150,000 for 1 year. Duration: 17 year(s) Territory: Worldwide Coverage : Exclusive patent license to make, have made, use and sell products incorporating biological materials, including genes, proteins and peptide fragments, expression systems, cells, and antibodies, for the field of plant disease

The comparability between transactions requires a comparison of the significant economic conditions that may affect the contracting parties:

- similarity of geographies - relevant date - same industry - market size and its economic development; contracting or expanding markets - market activity: whether wholesale, retail, other - relative market shares of contracting entities - location-specific costs of production and distribution - competitive environment in each geography - fair alternatives to contracting parties

The Income Approach

The Income approach focuses on the licensor estimating the profits generated by the licensee and obtaining an appropriate share of the generated profit. It is unrelated to costs of technology development or the costs of competing technologies.

The approach requires the licensee (or licensor): (a) to generate a cash-flow projection of incomes and expenses over the life-span of the license under an agreed scenario of incomes and costs (b) determining the Net Present Value, NPV of the profit stream, based on a selected discount factor, and c) negotiating the division of such profit between the licensor and the licensee.

The NPV of a future income is always lower than its current value because an income in the future is attended by risk. In other words, an income in the future needs to be discounted, in some manner, to obtain its present equivalent. The factor by which a future income is reduced is known as the 'discount rate'. Thus, $1.00 received a year from now is worth $0.9091 at a 10% discount rate, and its discounted value will be still lower two years down the line.

The actual discount factor used depends on the risk assumed by the principal gainer in the transaction. For instance, a mature technology worked in different geographies, will carry a lower risk of non-performance (thus, a lower discount rate) than a technology being applied for the first time. A similar situation arises when there is the option of working the technology in one of two different regions; the risk elements in each region would be different.

The method is treated in greater detail, using illustrative data, in Royalty Assessment.

The licensor's share of the income is usually set by the '25% rule of thumb', which is said to be even used by tax authorities in the US and Europe for arms-length transactions. The share is on the operating profit of the licensee firm. Even where such division is held contentious, the rule can still be the starting point of negotiations.

Three aspects to the profit of the enterprise must be noted:

(a) the profit that accrues to the licensee may not arise solely through the engine of the technology. There are returns from the mix of assets it employs such as fixed and working capital and the returns from intangible assets such as distribution systems, trained workforce, etc. Allowances need to be made for them.

(b) profits are also generated by thrusts in the general economy, gains from infrastructure, and the basket of licensed rights - patents, trademark, know-how. A lower royalty rate may apply in an advanced country where large market volumes can be commanded, or where protection to the technology is more secure than in an emerging economy (or perhaps, for other reasons, the inverse).

(c) the royalty rate is only one aspect of the negotiation. Contractual provisions such as an exclusive license, rights to sub-license, warranties on the performance of technology etc may enhance the advantages to the licensee, which is not compensated by the 25% metric.

The basic advantage of this approach, which is perhaps the most widely applied, is that the royalty rate can be negotiated without comparative data on how other agreements have been transacted. In fact, it is almost ideal for a case where precedent does not exist.

It is, perhaps, relevant to note that the IRS also uses these three methods, in modified form, to assess the attributable income, or division of income, from a royalty-based transaction between a US company and its foreign subsidiary.^[14] (since US law requires that a foreign subsidiary pay an appropriate royalty to the parent company).

Patent royalty rates

Patent royalty rates are influenced by the importance of the patent and its value to the products. Some realms of business have conventions regarding royalty rates and other license terms. Royalties are often computed as a percentage of the value of the finished product made by using the patent. To illustrate, the following are prevalent rates within the United States pharmaceutical industry:^[15]

* a pending patent on a strong business plan, royalties of the order of 1%

* issued patent, 1%+ to 2%

* the pharmaceutical with pre-clinical testing, 2-3%

* with clinical trials, 3-4%

* proven drug with US FDA approval, 5-7%

* drug with market share, 8-10%

Royalty rates may also be affected by whether a patent is strong (i.e. broadly written, seemingly valid) or weak; whether it is a fundamental patent or merely a slight improvement on a known technology; whether substitute technologies are available or an ability to work around the patent; the extent of the contribution of the patented technology to the value of the final product and whether there are other patents that must also be licensed (in which case there is a practical limit on how much royalty can be paid to license each).

Trademark royalty rates

In a long-running dispute involving the valuation of the DHL trademark of DHL Corporation,^[16] it was reported that experts employed by the IRS surveyed a wide range of businesses and found a broad range of royalties for trademark use from a low of 0.7% to a high of 15%.

Music Industry Royalties

Unlike other forms of intellectual property, music industry royalties have a strong linkage to individuals - composers(score), songwriters (lyrics) and writers of musical plays - in that they own the exclusive copyright to created music. Recording artists (and recording companies) enjoy a separate set of royalties from sound recordings and their digital transmission.

A musical composition obtains protection in copyright law immediate to its reduction to tangible form - a score on paper or a taping; but it is not protected from infringed use unless registered with the copyright authority; for instance, the Copyright Office in the United States, administered by the Library of Congress. No person or entity, other than the copyright owner, can use or employ the music for gain without a license from the composer/songwriter. Inherently, as copyright, it confers a distinctive 'bundle' of five exclusive rights:

(a) to make copies of the songs through recordings (b) to distribute them to the public for profit (c) to the 'public performance right'; live or through a recording (d) to create a derivative work (which becomes a new song); and (e) to 'display' it (not very relevant in this case).

Where the score and the lyric of a composition are contributions of different persons, each of them is an equal co-owner of such rights.

These exclusivities have led to the evolution of the distinct commercial terminology of the music industry. They take four forms:

(1) mechanical royalties from the recording of composed music on, say, CDs

(2) performance royalties from the performance of the compositions/songs on stage or television through artists and bands

(3) synch (for synchronization) royalties from using or adapting the musical score in the movies, television advertisements, etc. and

(4) royalties from 'print rights'

With the advent of the internet, an additional set of royalties has come into play : the digital rights of webcasting, internet downloads, streaming, etc. of recorded music.

In order to facilitate understanding, the terms 'composer' and 'songwriter' (either lyric or score), as used here, are synonymous.

Mechanical Royalties

The term 'mechanical' and mechanical license has its origins in the 'piano rolls' on which music was recorded in the early part of the 20th Century. Although its concept is now primarily oriented to royalty income from sale of CDs, its scope is wider and covers any copyrighted audio composition that is rendered mechanically, i.e. without human performers:

: *tape recordings

: *music videos

: *ringtones

: *MIDI files

: *downloaded tracks

: *computer games

: *musical toys etc.

There is a sharp difference in the United States treatment of mechanical royalties to that of international practice.

While the right to use copyrighted music for making records for public distribution (for private use) is an exclusive right of the composer, the Copyright Act provides that once the music is so recorded, anyone else can record the composition/song without a negotiated license but on the payment of the statutory compulsory royalty. Thus, its use by different artists could lead to several separately-owned copyrighted 'sound recordings'.

The following is a partial segment of the compulsory rates as they have applied from 1998 to 2007 in the United States ^[17]. The royalty rates in the table comprise of two elements: (i) a minimum rate applies for a duration equivalent to 5 minutes, or less, of a s musical composition/song and (ii) a per-minute rate if the composition exceeds it, whichever is greater.

:

Compulsory Mechanical Royalty Rates - United States

Period	Royalty Rate
01-01-1998 - 12-31-1999	7.10 cents or 1.35 cents/min
01-01-2000 - 12-31-2001	7.55 cents or 1.43 cents/min
01-01-2002 - 12-31-2003	8.00 cents or 1.55 cents/min
01-01-2004 - 12-31-2005	8.50 cents or 1.65 cents/min
01-01-2006 - 12-31-2007	9.10 cents or 1.75 cents/min

In the predominant case, the composer assigns the copyright to the music to a publishing company under a 'co-publishing agreement' which makes the publisher a co-owner of the composition. The publisher's role is to promote and license the music and administer the collection of royalties (which, as will shortly be seen, is in reality done by specialized companies). In some instances, the composer may also be the publisher.

Normally, of every 100 units of currency that flows to the publisher it gets divided as follows: 50 units go to the songwriter and 50 units to the publisher. However, the music writer obtains a further 25 units from the publisher's share (as a co-publisher). In effect, the co-publishing agreement is a 75/25 share of royalties in favor of the songwriter if administrative costs of publishing are disregarded. This is near international practice.

When a company (recording label) records the composed music, say, on a CD master, it obtains a distinctly separate copyright to the sound recording, with all the exclusivities that flow to such copyright. The main obligation of the recording label to the songwriter and the publisher is to pay the contracted royalties on the license received. Recording companies, in the US, will, typically, pay not more than 75% of the compulsory rate for a composition, where the songwriter is also the recording artist ([1] and will further (in the US) extend that to a maximum of 10 songs, even though the marketed recording may carry more than that number. This 'reduced rate' results from the incorporation of a "controlled composition" clause in the licensing contract ([2] since the composer as recording artist is seen to control the content of the recording.

Mechanical royalties for music produced outside of the United States are freely negotiated - there being no compulsory licensing - and royalty payments to the composer and her publisher for recordings are based on the wholesale, retail, or 'suggested retail value' of the marketed CDs.

Recording artists earn royalties only from the sale of CDs and tapes and, as will be seen later, from digital rights. Where the song-writer is also the recording artist, royalties from CD sales add to those from the recording contract.

In the US, recording artists earn royalties amounting to 8-25% of the suggested retail price of the recording, depending on their popularity but such is before deductions for 'packaging', 'breakage','promotion sales' and holdback for 'returns', which act to significantly reduce their net royalty incomes.

In the US, the Harry Fox Agency, HFA, is the predominant licensor, collector and distributor for mechanical royalties, although there are several small competing organizations. For its operations, it charges about 6% as commission. In the U.K. the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, MCPS, acts to collect and distribute royalties to composers, songwriters and publishers for many different formats. It is a not-for-profit organization which funds its work through a commissions on aggregate revenues.

See also

• Advance against royalties
• Intellectual property

External links

• " Royalty Rate Websites"
• "CPT page on Royalties on patents for health care inventions"
• "RoyaltyStat- database of royalty rates and license agreements"

References

1. ^ Focus: Tax and Intellectual Property – April 2004. Allens Arthur Robinson. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
2. ^ royalty (definition). law.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-13..
3. ^ Manual on Technology Transfer Negotiation (A reference for policy-makers and practitioners on Technology Transfer), United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Vienna, 1990, ISBN 92-1-106302-7
4. ^ Guidelines for Evaluation of Transfer of Technology Agreements, United Nations, New York, 1979
5. ^ Licensing Guide for Developing Countries, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, 1977, ISBN 92-805-0395-2
6. ^ UNIDO International Workshop on Technology Transfer Negotiation and Plant Level Technology Needs Assessment, 7-8 December 1999, New Delhi.
7. ^ Dave Tyrrell. Intellectual Property & Licensing. Vertex. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
8. ^ royalty interest (definition). Schlumberger. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
9. ^ Four little words. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
10. ^ Don Henley Speaks on Behalf of Recording Artists. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
11. ^ Use Of The 25 Per Cent Rule In Valuing IP. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
12. ^ Valuing Your Intellectual Property for Strategic Alliances and Financing. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
13. ^ Sample: License Parameters. Retrieved on 2007-09-26.
14. ^ Treasury Evaluations. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
15. ^ Ranges of royalty rates, and royalty guidelines, U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.
16. ^ DHL Corporation and Subsidiaries vs. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Docket Nos. 19570-95, 26103-95, United States Tax Court.. Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
17. ^ Compulsory Rates for Mechanical royalties. Retrieved on 2007-10-15)

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royal family is the extended family of a monarch. Generally, the head of a royal family is a king or queen regnant. The term "imperial family" more appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress regnant, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or
..... Click the link for more information.

intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain names, written and recorded media, and inventions. The holders of these legal entitlements may exercise various exclusive rights in relation to the subject matter of the IP.
..... Click the link for more information.

Oil and gas law in the United States is the branch of law that pertains to the acquisition and ownership rights in oil and gas both under the soil before discovery and after its capture, and adjudication regarding those rights.
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Leasehold is a form of property tenure where one party buys the right to occupy land or a building for a given length of time. A lease is a legal estate, leasehold estate can be bought and sold on the open market and differs from a tenancy where a property is let on a periodic
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Property law
Part of the common law series
Acquisition of property
Gift  · Adverse possession  · Deed
Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property
Alienation  · Bailment  · License
Estates in land
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patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an invention.

The procedure for granting patents, the requirements placed on the patentee and the extent of the exclusive rights vary widely
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trademark or trade mark^[1] is a distinctive sign or indicator of some kind which is used by an individual, business organization or other legal entity to uniquely identify the source of its products and/or services to consumers, and to distinguish its products or
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worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Not to be confused with copywriting.

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Property law
Part of the common law series
Acquisition of property
Gift  · Adverse possession  · Deed
Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property
Alienation  · Bailment  · License
Estates in land
..... Click the link for more information.

Franchise generally means a right or privilege. It may refer to:

• Suffrage, the civil right to vote
• A franchise (i.e., a franchise outlet) operated under the business method of franchising: the licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business.

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patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an invention.

The procedure for granting patents, the requirements placed on the patentee and the extent of the exclusive rights vary widely
..... Click the link for more information.

IP)', know-how (or knowhow as it is sometimes written) is an important component in the transfer of technology in national and international environments, co-existing with or separate from other IP rights such as patents, trademarks and copyright and is an economic
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trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information used by a business to obtain an advantage over competitors or customers. In some jurisdictions, such secrets are referred to as "confidential information".
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trademark or trade mark^[1] is a distinctive sign or indicator of some kind which is used by an individual, business organization or other legal entity to uniquely identify the source of its products and/or services to consumers, and to distinguish its products or
..... Click the link for more information.

service mark or servicemark. When a service mark is federally registered, the standard registration symbol ® or "Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off" may be used. Before it is registered, it is common practice (but has no legal standing) to use the term (SM), for example
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A brand includes a name, logo, slogan, and/or design scheme associated with a product or service. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the use of the product or service and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary.
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Franchising (from the French for honesty or freedom^[1]) is a method of doing business wherein a "franchisor" licenses proven methods of doing business to a "franchisee" in exchange for a recurring payment, fees and a percentage of sales or profits.
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Library of Congress

Location Washington, D.C.
Established 1800
Number of branches n/a
Collection size 30,011,749 Books (130,000,000 Total Items)
Annual circulation library does not publicly circulate
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The Copyright Royalty Board is a U.S. system of three Copyright Royalty Judges who determine rates and terms for copyright statutory licenses and make determinations on distribution of statutory license royalties collected by the United States Copyright Office of the Library of
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Recording is a process of capturing data or translating information to a format stored on a storage medium often referred to as a record.

Historical records of events have been made for thousands of years in one form or another.
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Performance rights organizations (PROs) provide intermediary functions, particularly royalty collection, between copyright holders and parties who wish to use copyrighted works publicly such as shopping and dining venues.
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The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. Debate, both historical and present day, suggests that defining the concept of an artist will continue to be difficult.
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residual is a payment made to the creator of performance art (or the performer in the work) for subsequent showings or screenings of the (usually filmed) work. A typical use is in the payment of residuals for television reruns. The word is often used in the plural form.
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Royalty-free music commonly refers to stock or 'library music' licensed for a single fee, without the need to pay any subsequent royalties.

How it works

There are many applications for which music must be licensed, such as for use in video and multimedia production, but
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20th century - 21st century
1960s  1970s  1980s  - 1990s -  2000s  2010s  2020s
1996 1997 1998 - 1999 - 2000 2001 2002

Year 1999 (MCMXCIX
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The Recording Artists' Coalition (RAC) is an American music industry organization that represents recording artists, and attempts to defend their rights and interests. Compare and contrast with the RIAA, which represents the recording industry.
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In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. In everyday usage, a record label is also a company that manages such brands and trademarks; coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution,
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This article or section is written like a personal reflection or and may require .
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“Authorship” redirects here.

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worldwide view of the subject.
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Not to be confused with copywriting.

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Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers.
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