Many creators, entrepreneurs, researchers, and small businesses register Intellectual Property (IP) to protect their valuable intangible assets. While protection is important, it is only the first step. The real value of IP lies in commercialization.
IP does not end at registration. The businesses that boast about benefiting from IP are not showcasing their IP registration certificates on office walls. Instead, they are showing the monetary returns they earn from their IP rights.
When you protect your IP by registering a trademark, patent, or industrial design, or by relying on automatically protected rights such as copyright and trade secrets, money does not immediately start flowing into your bank account. You must take further steps and engage in specific transactions to ensure that your IP rights, beyond protection, generate revenue and deliver a return on investment. This value is created through various transactions, all of which fall under the concept of IP commercialization.
IP commercialization means taking your protected IP rights (patents, copyrights, trademarks, or designs) and converting them into marketable products, services, or revenue. Simply put, it means using your protected idea to make money and valuable commercial or even research and development partnerships.
Commercialization can happen in many ways: selling your IP, licensing it to others, forming partnerships, or building a business around it.
The most common form of IP commercialization is licensing. This is when the IP owner gives another person or business permission to use their IP, subject to payment of a fee known as a royalty, while the IP owner maintains ownership. Licensing enables the IP owner to earn income without losing ownership. Licensing can be exclusive (to one party only in a specific territory) or non-exclusive (to multiple parties in that specific territory).
Next to licensing is assignment – where one sells their rights wholly to a different person or entity, transferring full IP rights to the buyer.
Franchising is another form of IP commercialization, and it involves allowing others to use your brand, business model, and IP to operate under your trademark, usually following strict standards like maintaining quality. A well-known example is restaurants like KFC. Likewise, a successful local restaurant can allow others to open branches using its trademark, brand, and business model for a fee/royalty. The main benefit of franchising is market expansion with shared risk.
IP Commercialization can also be in the form of a joint venture when two or more parties pool resources, including IP, to pursue a business opportunity together. E.g., a university partners with a private company to develop and market a medical device created through research. The benefit here is shared expertise, costs, and profits.
Other forms include merchandising, where an IP owner allows other producers of certain products, mostly consumer goods, to apply their IP to the goods for promotion purposes, e.g. Kids’ utensils branded with popular cartoon and movie characters.
Why Commercialize Your IP?
IP rights do more than block copycats; they create value. By assigning or licensing IP, innovators “expand into new markets, add revenue streams through royalties, [and] develop partnerships”. In other words, your IP becomes a strategic business asset. For a small business or startup, emphasizing IP can attract investors or partners who see the advantage of proprietary technology or brand.
Benefits of IP Commercialization for creators and businesses include:
- New revenue sources: Licensing a patent or copyright can earn lump-sum payments or ongoing royalties. For example, a software developer might license their code to multiple clients and earn fees without selling the company or transferring ownership of their code.
- Market expansion: Through licensing deals, even a small inventor can reach faraway markets without building factories everywhere.
- Brand value: Registering and protecting a brand or design gives the owner security and freedom to enter into contracts with others to offer licenses to other producers, enhancing the reputation of the brand, building goodwill, and reaching more customers.
- Investment and growth: Tangible IP demonstrates professionalism. A startup with a patented prototype or registered trademark often finds it easier to secure loans or investors. Yes, you can use your IP to secure credit.
- Competitive edge: IP rights give exclusivity in the market. As a small business with registered IP rights, you differentiate yourself from copycats and have a higher advantage of demanding a premium price for your products.
Each of these benefits shows why commercialization – not just registering IP – is key. So, rather than seeing IP rights as mere paperwork, think of them as seeds that, once planted via licensing, franchising, or joint ventures, grow into real market impact. The ultimate goal of IP isn’t just protection, it is use for commercial gain. Putting IP “to strategic use” turns ideas into additional revenue and business growth.
Whether you are an artist, entrepreneur, SME, researcher, or student, the goal should not end at protection. The real power of IP lies in commercialization, turning ideas into income, solutions, and lasting impact.
Learn more: https://www.wipo.int/en/web/business/assignment-licensing
