Patent licensing, also known as patent authorization, refers to the behavior that the owner of patented technology or his licensor permits others to implement the patents he owns in a certain period, in a certain region and in a certain way, and collects royalties from others. In patent licensing, the patentee is the licensor and the licensee is the licensee, and a patent licensing contract should be signed between the licensor and the licensee. The patent licensing contract only authorizes the licensee to exploit the patented technology, and there is no transfer of patent ownership. That is, the licensee has no right to allow any unit or individual other than those stipulated in the contract to exploit the patent.
There are many types of patent licensing:
According to the implementation period, there are licenses within the whole validity period of the patent and licenses within a certain validity period of the patent;
According to the implementation area, there are implementation licenses in China, outside China and in some specific areas;
According to the scope of implementation, there are manufacturing licenses, use licenses, sales licenses and all licenses for manufacturing, using and selling;
According to the implementation conditions, there are general implementation license, exclusive implementation license, exclusive implementation license, sub-implementation license and cross-implementation license.