Contracts

Our contract consulting services focus on license agreements, sales contracts concerning intellectual property rights and know-how, confidentiality agreements, contracts concerning development cooperation and contracts between joint applicants.

License agreements

License agreements may grant a simple or an exclusive right to use intellectual property or know-how. Although freedom of contract applies to license agreements as a basic principle, a large number of clauses are problematic or impermissible from an antitrust perspective. There are also warranty and liability issues that require clarification, making explicit contractual arrangements advisable in certain cases. The statutory provisions are sometimes ambiguous, which may lead to protracted litigation, and furthermore not always in line with the contracting parties’ intentions.

Sales contracts concerning intellectual property rights

Intellectual property rights may also be sold, in which cases care must be taken to ensure that the contract of sale provides for transfer of all rights in the intellectual property and that the vendor grants the purchaser the relevant intellectual property warranties.

We are at your disposal for further questions concerning these topics.