**5. Assignment and licensing of patent**

Assignment of patent is transfer of ownership of the patent technology. The assignor can be the first inventor or first applicant of such patent and assignee will be the first applicant of patent application or any interested party who is capable to work such patented technology. Assignment of the patent or patent application commonly occur between the employee and the employer; student or professor and the university; or between two different corporate bodies. Such assignment depends on the respective IP policy of the respective organization.

Licensing is leasing your exclusive rights to make, sell, use to another interested party (licensee) for a limited period of time while retaining the actual patent ownership to the licensor. The types of licensing of patents or patent application are:

#### **5.1 Exclusive license**

In an Exclusive License, the licensee cannot license the patent to anyone else. It is exclusively granted to such licensee and the licensee cannot further license it to anybody else. The licensee holds the ownership of the patent for the term of the license only.

#### **5.2 Non-exclusive license**

In the non-exclusive license of the patent, the patent can be leased to more than one party, and all of them can maintain control over such patented technology to monetize the claimed product or process in such patent or patent application.

#### **5.3 Sub licenses**

Assume that the licensee needs third party contribution like requirement of work force, or certain machinery or raw materials to monetize the patented product, then the licensee can agree to sub-licensing with different organizations for the making of the product as claimed in the patent.

#### **5.4 Cross-licensing**

Assume, that two organization have their own patented technology which complement each other, then both the organizations can negotiate in terms of cross-licensing of their patented technology. Cross- licensing is required when the invention of one organization requires the support of other products or patented technology owned by the other organization to bring out the efficient product into the market.
