The Licensing Update covers the year’s most significant cases and developments in licensing. The annual update identifies critical trends that licensing professionals and practitioners must understand thoroughly in this rapidly evolving area and provides guidance from licensing experts in a variety of areas of specialty.

Highlights of the 2021 Edition include fully updated chapters chapters in all of the major licensing topic areas:

Continuing a trend, the Software/Video Games/Apps category grew 10.6%, the fastest growing product category in 2019, increasing its share of the licensing market for a fourth consecutive year to 7.8%. Other trend lines are discussed. Updated listing of the top 150 licensors for 2020. Patent licensing was impacted by significant unprecedented global events and court decisions in 2020. COVID-19 presented the world with a profound health and economic crisis. Technology companies rose up to the challenge through the rapid public offering of technology under an Open COVID Licensing pledge. Europe stood out when issuing a policy document on the need to rapidly pool patent licensing in order to respond to global challenges such as COVID-19. In addition, 2020 witnessed advances in Standard Essential Patent (SEP) rulings on Fair, Reasonable, and Non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing. In particular, the Federal Circuit issued a crucial decision on the application of antitrust law to SEPs and FRAND licensing. These developments are discussed and examined in a fully revamped Chapter 4. As cannabis legalization takes root in state jurisdictions, brands are now beginning to emerge. A new section on licensing in the cannabis industry examines the challenges the industry faces, especially given the lack of federal framework. Of note is the discussion on using branding and licensing to expand into other jurisdictions. A discussion of the contract provisions in licensing deals affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: force majeure and make-good provision are highlighted. In international licensing issues, a critical look at jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom and Australia. New sections discussing trends in licensing, especially with respect to retail. Facemasks and green-themed toys dominated the market and, with their ascendance, a plethora of licensing deals. 2020 brought a Ninth Circuit decision that clarified the narrow scope of any antitrust duty to license IP to rivals or antitrust liability for breach of a contractual commitment to license on F/RAND terms. The opinion in FTC v. Qualcomm is discussed. 2021 is likely to bring a Supreme Court decision on the long-running copyright battle between Google and Oracle over copyright protection for the JAVA software application programming interfaces ( APIs ) and the scope of the fair use defense.

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Previous Edition: Licensing Update 2020, ISBN 9781543818642