How should I contact companies to license my patent pending invention?

Many companies specify mailing addresses to receive invention submissions from inventors or have online invention submission capabilities. Following the procedures specified by a company is a great place to start and establishing a connection with a company representative by other means can be a good additional means to attempt to get your invention considered. Some of our clients have had success contacting company representatives via their publicly available email addresses, via LinkedIn, or via phone calls to the company.

When submitting information about your invention to a company, we recommend preparing (or hiring a copywriter or someone specializing in sales or marketing to prepare for you) a short, attention grabbing flyer describing the benefits of your invention to introduce it. Company representatives will often decline a good business opportunity if they do not quickly see the merit and appeal of the invention. This shortsighted approach is a detriment to both the inventor and the company, but you can help avoid that outcome by helping them see the potential of the business arrangement you are proposing right away.

Accompanying the flyer can be a more extended description of your invention, a rough outline of the license arrangement you would like to propose, and a copy of your patent application. By rough outline of a license arrangement, we mean proposing an arrangement in general like a one-time, upfront payment, fixed periodic payments, a percentage of gross revenue from sales of the invention, or some hybrid royalty model. You need not specify dollar amounts or percentage amounts, but instead can communicate a framework that would work well for you. You can also communicate details like whether you would be open to an exclusive license and/or an exclusive license for a given geographic region.

Our patent attorneys have experience preparing and negotiating patent license agreements. Once you have a company interested in licensing your pending patent rights, our patent attorneys can help you negotiate and establish particular terms of a license agreement.