The PROLICE is run by four partners (1x patent attorney, 1x attorney for IT and media law, 1x attorney for company law, 1x attorney and tax consultant) for economic exploitation of, for example, industrial property rights (patents, trademarks, designs) for German, European or international territories. The PROLICE was founded out of the motivation to realize the use and economic exploitation of industrial property rights as easily accessible as possible, both for the owners of the property rights themselves and for third parties (users, exploiters, licensees). The PROLICE focuses on a function as a pure service provider for evaluation and exploitation, without itself being the owner of the rights. Optionally, in individual cases, the PROLICE may also be/become the (co-)owner of a legal position or property right, e.g. if this is desired by the holder during exploitation. The legal knowledge of the partners, in particular also with regard to industrial property rights, is one of the pillars of all kind of advice provided by the PROLICE when supporting your company, for example based on a contract for national/international licensing of your intellectual property (e.g. licensing of a trademark for a specific product in a specific market segment in country X). However, legal advice as such lies outside the consulting spectrum of the PROLICE, i.e., legal advice is outsourced in the respective consulting project, e.g. by contacting a patent attorney.
Be it within the scope of a cooperation with an exclusive business partner or in a constellation with many largely arbitrary licensees: the PROLICE may support your company on the path to an economically successful and legally secure market constellation including third parties (licensees). You are free to decide whether or to what extent your company should actually be involved in active exploitation of your intellectual property (IP), or whether your company merely manages and licenses the IP or liquidates it in due course.
Since all four partners of the PROLICE each work independently of each other as legal advisors with individual expertise in separate law firms, a strategy can be developed by the PROLICE based on your economic objectives, by means of which the economic exploitation of your intellectual property or the use of intellectual property of third parties will be well secured from a legal perspective. Purely legal issues will be examined in each individual case by an independent law firm or, optionally, by the law firm of the respective partner of the PROLICE (you may decide on your own).
Example 1: Being a licensor, you would like to elaborate a contract for a simple trademark license of your EU trademark (being used only little hitherto) for a project partner in France; then you would contact a lawyer in his office, e.g. a lawyer who also works for the PROLICE, and have a contract drawn up by this lawyer in his capacity as liable lawyer; based on this contract, the PROLICE may then represent or at least communicate your interests to the French project partner on your behalf and, for example, may provide advice to your company, e.g. by conducting negotiations.
Example 2: You would like to have an expert opinion on the validity of your patent and on the scope of protection of your patent, in particular in view of the question whether a previous licensee may no longer have to fulfil any obligations under that license agreement due to an attempt to circumvent the patent; you would then contact a patent attorney in his office, e.g. a patent attorney who also works for the PROLICE, and ask for an expert opinion on these two patent law issues; it goes without saying that it should be cost-effective to contact that patent attorney who already filed your patent. Based on the patent attorney’s assessment, the PROLICE may then recommend a negotiation strategy for further discussions with your licensee, and may also provide advise with respect to any arguable point in connection with further exploitation steps.
In such constellations, the PROLICE may e.g. provide recommendations regarding the advantages, disadvantages and pitfalls of simple or exclusive licenses, possibly with the option of sub-licensing, in each case with regard to the relevant territory or jurisdiction. Alternatively, the PROLICE may provide for an assessment of the extent to which a breach of contract by a licensee may lead to legal action on your part against the licensee. In any case, the PROLICE can point out problems and arguable points of regulation and give recommendations for any action in asserting your interests, and can conduct or at least facilitate communication with third parties for your company.
These examples also show that the PROLICE may also act as a kind of mediator “between the chairs”, especially in a manner as cost-effectively as possible since your interests and legal positions are already familiar to the shareholders of the PROLICE. The services of the PROLICE are therefore offered in individual service packages, each of which pursues a primary goal, especially in accordance with the current situation of your company or the decisions to be taken shortly (for example, lucrative exploitation as soon as possible – cf. the CASH service package).