• you're not selling rights, you're renting it out to somebody.
• you're granting rights to someone and you can license it to multiple people (non-exclusive licensing)
• if they don't want to use the rights anymore you get them back.
• you can pick multiple companies in different locations and have different markets to sell in.
• ultimate goal for artists is letting someone else take the risk for the product. (is it gonna be successful or not)
• you share the profit through royalties (a percentage of the sales)
• different types of licensing
• visual art licensing - artwork that goes on already existing work. graphics or illustration for products.
• ^^ brand licensing. develop a brand (could be you, etc) you're inventing the design in 2d art licensing.
• invention licensing - innovate a new product or design/technical invention. furniture, household accessories, software, etc.
• character licensing - storyline and narritaves can be licensed for books, tv shows, films, games, toys clothing. youre picking a character and figuring out how to conceptualize it for the market (plushies, books, idk)
• davidpalmerstudio.com
• artists can create collections that are specifically for licensing.
• grad show - be careful about ip/licenses
• a lot of teachers dont know about this stuff either
• make sure trademark search to make your own brand.
• sells stuff yourself but then license it much later
• sublicensing - can give the licensing to someone else? (if you give every right to someone of a book or something they get to sublicense the tv show.)
• you do not have to give the publisher the right to everything
• learn from other people taking the risk on your project.
• build relationships with manufacturers/companies
• there are companies out there that acquire projects just to keep it off the market.
• large companies can buy 50 projects but only do 3 of them. and nobody else can make those 50 projects..
• create different versions of the same concept. rip yourself off first.
• you can license your stuff that's been off the market
• "what kind of work has this artist licensed already?"
• look for agents in the industry

WEEK 3

• in most cases, you are going to depend on the licensee to do the marketing with some support (maybe) when you develop the marketing plan. the purpose is to show the licensee how youre marketing it
• study what the licensee does
• whos the audience (likely manufacturers who would like to adopt property)
• understand strategy toward protecting vs exposing ip
• trade shows are awesome according to prof castella
• dont go to trade shows to expose your original idea (cause people would steal it)
• youre looking for the company with the distribution you want to be in
• retail sectors
• high end department store
• mid tier department stores
• big box, mass market and general merchandise stores
• e-commerce
• specialty stores broken down by the type of merchandise
• direct to retail licensees
• manufacturer sells directly to customers on-line or through their own channels
• collab with a retailer to sell the licensed property online
• presenting to a retailer to bring manufacturers on board
• what are retailers looking for
• they want to pay low price for high quality
• products that have more than average markups
• exclusives as an advantage over competition
• work with manufacturers with an established track record/existing relationships
• short lead times for delivery
• long payment terms
• products that move from shelves quickly and are easy to replace
• high quality with few returns
• collect shelf space and ad fees
• tagging and packaging product so easy to shelve
• some want distributors to manage inventory and restock shelves
• guarantee for returns
• test in few stores or regions before deciding on a roll out
• you can just do it in your own company if your reach is big enough. you probably wouldn't need to license because you're looking to gain
• companies need the privacy to have your work licensed
• pick product category where you want your work to be in
• exclusive and nonexclusive market territories
• exclusive: the complete rights
• nonxclusive: the rights are multiple people
• territories and markets matter
• you can give someone excl right for apparel in china, austrailia, us, etc.

the ttprg community is small so a lot of engagement comes from organic relationships built between you and your audience. just being genuine to an audience on places like reddit, or any geeky forum site is enough to "Build your audience"

- The SorryCracked

• positioning chart
• where does the brand fit in relation to the competitors
• for a brand, identify a blue ocean (where theres not many competitors). figure out why there are no competitors. is it a bad market?
• for licensing you want to put your product in a place where there are a lot of licensors/a big market.
• what can you do to your project to make it for companies?
• your axis is going to be about different types of gameplay and different styles.
• the axis is the most important elements in your industry.
• Look at the handouts... blaggghhh

WEEK 8

• it's really nice when you both have contracts that you can compare
• before a contract you usually have a deal term sheet- ok, what are you looking at in terms of this deal? what percentage? what rights? exclusive/nonexclusive, what markets what territories?
• $1000-2000 to work with a lawyer to work over a contract
• you are the licensor- property owner
• licensee is the party receiving he license thats asking to use the IP
• property is referring to the IP thats gonna be licensed
• nonexclusive- your license will be run through
• Royalty
• the percentage of the sales that you're gonna get from licensing. you get an advance when you sign a contract (royalties upfront) once you sell a percentage, you'd get your checks off of that/off the price that they charge
• tricky because
• the total amount of sales might not be as you predicted
• net sales- the price that they charge
• you're getting a percentage of the price that they charge
• idk like 15 dollars a pdf
• is the royalty off the net sales, gross sales, or off the cover price?
• you always want a guaranteed minimum royalty. this can be your advance- if the design doesn't go into production you can be fine with the money that covers your minimum royalty amount
• it can be hard to get a minimum royalty if the product doesn't sell when the contract is over so you want it upfront
• does your licensee have the connections for sublicensing?
• the licensing agreement
• payment terms- the guarantee, you want it to be an advance on signing
• the royalty amount, the payment schedule
• how does the company go about releases? they could release on a certain season, etc.
• one-time lump sum payment- at least you got paid if it doesn't get to market
• if there's no money on the table don't go for it
• ongoing royalty payments with no advance or guaranteed minimum
• either the above plus an advance guaranteed minimum and royalty
• pitch marketing concepts and then come up with a budget with them
• quality control provisions- you may be involved or you're passing off style guide to them
• termination
• lay out the grounds for the termination of the contract
• list of reasons why the contract might terminate
• auditors check the books to see if things are going according to plan/youre getting paid
• you want the royalties to go into a company for a partnership
• look at the distribution of your licensee to get a sense of scale
• 100000 sell for $35 each - 3.5 mil
• decide on sales goals
• digital download
• week 9 practice negotiating