License Your Technology

A license entitles the license-holder to use a patented invention or technical know-how or material or software. Granting a license to an established corporation or a start-up is a way of ensuring that an invention is developed into a marketable product. Licensing revenues are plowed back into research at the DKFZ. In a license agreement, the patent owner grants the company taking the license the right to use or exploit the invention in a defined territory. Licensing does not entail the transfer of rights of ownership.

License agreements can also be concluded for materials (e.g. transgenic mice and cell lines – see the Material Transfer Agreements) and other forms of intellectual property, including copyright, in particular for software. 

To find our answers to how licenses happen, the channels we use, what can help us get your invention licensed quicker, how we decide between licenses and spinouts etc. please visit FAQs.