Drafting a Good License Agreement for Your Product

Licensing agreement is a contract whereby the innovator, writer, composer, software programmer and scientist allow other people to manufacture, publish and sell copies of their work. It is the protection of the innovators or inventors from other market followers such as cloners, imitators, adapters and the worst, counterfeiters. It is also a way for the innovators or inventors to secure their potential earnings for their creation.

However, the protection of the innovators or inventors will depend on how good their licensing agreement is between their licensees. There have been controversies whereby a licensee only uses the agreement in order to sabotage the product or to imitate the same. And, after the agreement expired, the person granted with the license will no longer renew the same for the reason that the product's value has already diminished or that they have already adapted the product themselves. Thus, the supposed to be consistent million dollar income per year may be gone after two or three years due to a bad drafted agreement.

So, to avoid this awful situation, an innovator or investor should consider the following tips in drafting a good licensing agreement:

1. Investigate the profile of the licensee.

The business owner or inventor must first investigate the status of the licensee and find out whether granting them distribution rights will be more beneficial to the product or not. This is because of the fact that most of the companies who apply for distribution rights are companies situated in other countries. These companies may have other agendas in applying for distribution rights. There have been reports of small and rising businessmen who were victimized by some companies from other countries wherein their product were used as fronts for the illegal business.

2. Give more emphasis to the financial and security stipulation of the agreement.

A good licensing agreement should not just be concerned on how the distributor can position or sell the product in their local market. It must also include as to how the licensor will be paid. If the licensor will not be careful, the distributor would be earning more than him.

A good example of a useful financial stipulation is the "escalation royalty" clause. This is a clause that states that as the sales for the local market increases, the royalties must also increase in proportion of the sales.

As to the security stipulations, a good agreement must include exclusivity clauses. Examples of exclusivity clauses are stipulations that limit the owner of the product from allowing other companies from the same countries to distribute the product as well. Most applicants of distribution rights prefer exclusivity because it can secure their earnings.

Another good example of exclusivity clauses are stipulations that limits the distributor from cloning, counterfeiting, imitating or adapting the product. As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, some licensees only enter into an agreement with the owner or inventor of the product so they can also develop, clone or adapt the product. If this happens, the licensee's products may cannibalize the original product and wipe it out from the market.

Review of the Original Dance from the 2005 World Figure Skating Championships

The judges ranking and their score for the OD are in parentheses.

1) Belbin/Agosto (2, 67.54) It is quite ironic that after spending all season complaining bout how much I dislike this program that I am ranking it first at worlds. But I feel they were the clear winners of the OD. They attacked this program and nailed everything. I got a good laugh at the British Eurosport's commentators trying to find something about this performance to criticize and coming up with 'Their arms weren't always in perfect unison,' because if that is the biggest problem with any program, it was obviously skated fabulously. The Charleston and quickstep were arguably the best of the night, and their foxtrot was almost up to the level it was four seasons ago. The choreography still is not very good, but their performance overcame that and made you forget about the it.

2) Navka/Kostomarov (1, 68.67) This is by no means a bad program, but it is also not a great program. Both the quickstep and foxtrot were done well, but not amazingly so. Still, the transitions are 1000% better than they were a season ago, making this actually looks somewhat like a dance program, instead of a pairs program with dance elements. And how can one not give them points for their extremely original musical selection of "Sing Sing Sing"? But as neither the difficulty level nor the interpretation was up to the level of Belbin/Agosto's, they deserved to place second.

3) Chait/Sakhnovski (5, 61.19) After placing 3rd at the GPF in the OD, I was crossing my fingers that their placement would be the same here. Unfortunately, the judges failed me. They, unlike the teams directly below them, had great interpretation of the rhythms and skated without any mistakes. And their energy level, as always, was ridiculously high. Plus, their skating skills, while not quite as good as the skating skills of the very best in the world, have improved so much that they should challenge those other teams.

4) Denkova/Staviski (4, 62.79) Awkward OD interpretation, but thy did skate all out. Their skating skills - and the fact that they too did not mess up, held them above the other teams here. Still, this OD is very forgettable.

5) Delobel/Schoenfelder (6, 60.25) Had Isabelle not made a small mistake on the sbs footwork sequence, they would have been challenging the top teams. Unfortunately, she did. Isabelle has nice interpretation, and even Olivier seems less lifeless than usual. Plus, the choreography is superb. The only other problem is that they are slightly off-beat for part of the foxtrot.

6) Grushina/Goncharov (3, 63.17) This program has many of they same weaknesses as B/A's does, which should not be a surprise, considering it is basically the same program. (Morozov's creativity or lack there of has sunk to a new low for "his" programs for G/G this season.) But unfortunately for them, they do not have B/A's technical strengths and charisma. Elena is lovely as always; Ruslan is dull as always. And I'm still waiting for them to finish their sbs footwork. Somebody needs to go out and push them during any footwork sequence.

7) Domnina/Shabalin (7, 58.86) These two probably had the best foxtrot interpretation of the season. It was graceful, musical, and truly brought the classical foxtrot to the ice. They even made their dance spin seem foxtrot-y. The sbs footwork didn't seem very powerful, and their twizzles, while miles better than many of the other team's, were a bit shaky. The quickstep was okay.

8) Dubreuil/Lauzon (8,58.30) Argh. The foxtrot and quickstep sections were extremely well-interpreted and the whole dance was extremely cohesive for a combination OD. But the sbs footwork was a complete and utter disaster. It got messed up about 1/3 of the way through, and they never quite got it back on track. There was a little to much of time spent not touching each other. And their Charleston was a bit awkward in places. Plus, why are they miming holding umbrellas? Isn't the whole point of "Singin' in the Rain" that one is singing in the rain, and not covered by umbrellas?

9) Faiella/Scali (9, 56.13) Their stroking has improved dramatically. Their twizzles still aren't very good. And they didn't really seem to truly get either rhythm, especially the quickstep. But technically, it was a strong program, and they had good energy as always,

10) Wing/Lowe (10, 52.52) They start off with a nice, although slightly dull, foxtrot. And then they transition into a nice, but slightly dull Charleston. I normally really like this team, but this performance seemed to lack energy. They don't have the technical content of the teams above them.

11) Fraser/Lukanin (13, 48.82) Their speed and polished has dramatically improved. Very nice foxtrot expression. They spend a little too much time apart. They had nice musicality too.

12) Kerr/Kerr (11, 50.71) There's still a fairly sizable gap between her skills and his, although he has improved. They have nice foxtrot expression. Theirs twizzles in the sbs footwork was very messy towards the end. Their quickstep was fine, but not quite as good as the foxtrot.

13) Gregory/Petukhov (12, 50.22) I got the advice to only watch him, not her, and I enjoyed them much more than usual. Interpret that as you want. Of course, then I missed the mistake she made on the twizzles during the sbs footwork, which also lacked flow. Decent Charleston expression. Too much stroking in foxtrot section.

14) Kulikova/Novikov (14, 48.72) She did best with the quickstep, while he shone in the foxtrot. Second quickstep had very little traditional quickstep character. They had a slightly messy quality overall.

I did not rank the rest of the teams.

Hoffman/Elek (17, 45.34) They start with a foxtrot, which was absolutely lovely and really captured the rhythm. The quickstep was very good too, but did not quite work as well as the foxtrot. And somebody needs to teach Atilla to twizzle, because I'm sick of him messing those up, as he did on the sbs footwork. And then he had trouble lifting Nora on the final lift, although a portion of that can probably be blamed on her 472346 pound dress. But overall, this was a very nice OD.

Gudina/Beletski (18, 42.85) They start off with an enthusiastic Charleston. But the foxtrot was dull, with little difficulty. And unfortunately they could not pick up the energy level with the final quickstep section, to Dancing Fool of all songs.

Watanabe/Kido (15, 46.57) A very good and in-character quickstep. Diagonal footwork could flow better. Their foxtrot was good, but not quite as in character as the quickstep. He has some trouble with the last lift.

Grebenkina/Azronjan (16, 46.02) Great energy, and their movements are very dance-y and fit the quickstep well. Their foxtrot is to extremely odd music - just a rhythm and no melody. But they end with another well-done quickstep section.

Beier/Beier (20, 41.66) Very cute and charming, with a good ballroom interpretation of the rhythms.

Kauc/Zych (22, 40.92) Fabulous foxtrot expression. Twizzles during sbs footwork were messy. Basic skating is very good. This program lacked the falls that their programs usually have, but it also lacked the energy and attack. Their quickstep expression is also very nice.

Pechalat/Bourzat (23, 40.71) They start with a very charming and well characterized Charleston. But she takes a bad fall during the sbs footwork. Their musicality in the foxtrot was good, but the choreography wasn't very ballroom. They fixed that during a great quickstep section.

Yang/Gao (19, 42.67) Decent foxtrot. She hits a lovely position during the lift. She's very charming. Charleston is nice too. He looks to have trouble rotating the final lift.

Golovina/Voika (21, 41.57) They start with movements that seem to exaggerated for the more subtle foxtrot rhythm. But they still have good musicality and energy. Decent quickstep, but again the movements don't fit the rhythm very well.

Munana/Munana (25, 36.31) As sick as I am of Chicago ODs, this one was great. Both rhythms, especially the Charleston, were interpreted fabulously. Both skaters sparkled. They clearly do not have the technical ability of the top teams, but if they can ad technical content in the future, they most definitely will be contenders.

Akimova/Shakalov (29, 31.35) Very polished, but little else going for them. He tripped on the sbs footwork. Diagonal footwork is . Their musicality is pretty good.

Aureli/Vaturi (24, 38.66) They start off with a lot of dancing in place. They have somewhat poor ice coverage on the sbs steps. But they have a good understanding of both the quickstep and foxtrot. Unfortunately, they really lack in technical content.

Haunstetter/Hoenlein (27. 33.00) Chicago. Again. But they have a very good Charleston, and his foot position during the lift was fabulous. Ugly and out-of-sync twizzles. The rest of the sbs wasn't much better. They looked like they were skating two different programs during the sbs steps. He is terrific.

Buck/Nelson-Bond (28, 32.85) Good Charleston expression. Pretty good speed through diagonal footwork. She hits great positions in their lifts. Their weakness seems to be basic skating. They also had unison trouble on the sbs footwork.

Keller/Keller (26, 33.23) Really weird Charleston music. Decent musicality. Their program is very empty. They also lacked energy. Their quickstep expression was the best of the three rhythms.

Galcheniuk/Krupen (30, 28.14) Most of their skating is decent. Their programs aren't empty, and their musical interpretation is okay. Plus, they have nice energy. Unfortunately, nothing about their skating is anything better than decent, especially their basic skating.

Four Types Of Quad Bikes For Sale

Quad bikes are fantastic for recreational activities as they are rugged and can be driven over any kind of terrain. They provide great sporting thrill for any adventure savvy. If you are considering purchasing your very own bike, get familiar with the types of quad bikes for sale available in order to choose the one that is suitable for you.

Typically, there are four main categories utility, off-road, on-road and sport. Quads used for utility purposes normally come with a four-wheel drive and are larger than those designed for amusement. They come with firm suspensions as well as frames to carry heavy weight of more than 250 pounds. These are especially engineered to conquer rough territory and can even be used to tow other automobiles. They make ideal companions if you are involved in regular camping or farming as these bikes can carry heavy loads for you. Most utility quads come with full skid plates attached.

Off-road quads are wired to tread on uneven land. This type of bikes are highly sought-after although they are not designed to be driven on populated road since it does not come with lights, horns and mirrors as with any regular vehicle, making them illegal for street driving. However, the on-road version is fully equipped to be driven legally on roads. These are more practical as you can ride them off-road as well.

Recreational or sport bikes are normally smaller than the utility ones. These are considered as sport quads because they can be quickly accelerated. They are automatic, two-wheel drive automobiles that can be swiftly manoeuvred, offering fast movement to adventure enthusiasts. These are typically used in racing. Sport as well as utility quad automobiles can be used for on-road and off-road driving as long as they meet the legal requirements to drive them on the road.

When looking at quad bikes for sale, bear in mind that the smaller vehicles are normally equipped with engines as small as 50cc while the bigger ones are provided with engines that reach 1000cc or higher. The smaller engines are ideal for children, as children's quads should not reach higher than 90cc. Test drive the bike to see whether it is what you are looking for. Because these automobiles are large and bulky, they can cause serious injurious. Ensure that you know how to ride it or have an expert supervise you. Opt to purchase a brand new vehicle instead of a used one.

How to Choose an ID Theft Prevention Service

Most of us know the prevalence, dangers, and consequences of identity theft. It is the fastest growing white-collar crime. To proactively combat identity theft, more and more people are turning to ID theft prevention services to regularly monitor fraudulent activity.

Unfortunately, not all identity theft prevention services are the same, and selecting the best one for you can be confusing and frustrating. There are dozens to choose from and each offers varying levels of protection for a monthly fee.

Before you even start shopping for an ID theft prevention service, it's important to know that there are many things you can do to proactively defend against ID theft at no cost. For example, you can monitor your credit for free once per year with each of the three major credit reporting bureaus, and can implement a credit freeze to prevent any new accounts from being opened in your name.

One form of ID theft you can't directly guard against is a data breach, which occurs when an identity thief hacks into the database of an organization that has your personal information on file (such as a bank or a doctor's office). There were 662 data breaches in 2010 according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, up from 498 in 2009, proving that no one is immune to ID theft.

Considering the growing threats, subscribing to an ID theft prevention service is definitely a good idea. But before you decide to pay for one, do your research and ask whether the service:

• Offers monthly, weekly, daily, or even real-time credit monitoring. Time is not on your side when your identity is stolen, so real-time or at least daily credit monitoring is recommended.

• Provides ID theft prevention services, such as setting-up fraud alerts, obtaining credit bureau reports, and monitoring credit card activity. Although you could complete these services yourself for free, it's a time-saver to have them performed by the ID theft prevention service.

• Monitors all three credit reporting bureaus. Some services only monitor one of the three agencies, which isn't enough protection when you consider that a potential creditor usually only checks with one of them.

• Provides unlimited access to your credit scores. Keep in mind that many ID theft prevention services do not provide access to your FICO score.

• Has customer support. Live representatives should be available 24/7 if you suspect a problem.

• Provides ID theft insurance. Although it does not cover damages resulting from identity theft, ID theft insurance reimburses the costs involved in restoring your identity.

• Offers recovery assistance. Services vary greatly, and you want to know how much help you can expect in the event of ID theft. Some services only provide you with fraud affidavits to complete, while others actually contact creditors, law enforcement agencies, and other entities on your behalf.

You will also want to compare costs of the various ID theft prevention services, remembering that the price doesn't necessarily reflect the level and effectiveness of the service.

With all of the ID theft prevention services available, choosing the best option can seem like a daunting task. But it doesn't have to be. Professional practices and individuals alike turn to The Identity Advocate to rest easier. Get tips to start protecting your identity by visiting http://www.TheIdentityAdvocate.com or calling 310.831.4400.

Are Showers Harmful to Your Health?

The last thing you would think about when you are taking a nice, refreshing shower is, "Am I jeopardizing my health"?

Chlorine is used by many municipalities to disinfect their water supply.

Unfortunalely, according to many health experts, chlorine has been linked to breast, bladder and colon cancer.

If chlorine is so bad, why do they continue to use it?

It's a matter of economics.

Chlorine is probably the cheapest way to disinfect water.

When I first read about this, my first thought was, "I don't drink the water in the shower, so what is there to worry about"?

What I didin't know was, our skin can absorb 7 - 10 times more chlorine than from drinking water that contains chlorine.

When showering, chlorine can vaporize and form chloroform gas, which is inhaled, affecting those with respiratory problems such as asthma and bronchitus.

Showering in chlorinated water can also cause excess drying of the skin and hair.

Does this mean we should stop taking showers?

No!

There is an easy solution. Using easy to install shower filters will alleviate the chlorine problem.

Not only will you be able to shower without the worry of the bad effects of chlorine, you will enjoy the benefits of softer, smoother skin and hair that is less dry.

I Have a Great Idea, A New Invention, What Should I Do Next?

Well, as the coordinator for a think tank which happens to operate online, entrepreneurs are coming to me all the time and asking me about how to sell their great new invention or product. Or, maybe they haven't even got to the development or prototype phase yet, but they have a great idea, it's a new innovation that no one else has thought of, and they would like to bring it into reality, and either make royalties off the sales, manufacture the product themselves, or sell the idea to a larger corporation for a whole bunch of money. Yes, this is the inventor's dilemma, what to do next.

The other day, a local inventor came to me for advice because I deal with people on the Internet all over the world, realize that I run a think tank, and so they asked me what they should do. I can't tell you what this special invention is because it is such a great idea, and it is confidential. Nevertheless, I recommended that they go on to "Google Scholar" and search to see if anyone else has a patent. First, it won't be easy to check because different industries use different buzzwords.

There may be someone who has the patent for your exact invention and idea, almost exactly how you envision it in your mind, but to find it you have to get creative and search all different kinds of similar words to find it, and if it exists you do need to find it. Of course, if it doesn't exist, then you're in luck, then you can go to step two. If someone else already has a similar patent, see if you can find a different application for the device, or make the device in a different way. If you can't, and they've covered all their bases, you might wish to contact the individual, and see if you can't make and market their product, because many people get a patent and never exercise it.

In other words they never build the product, never intended to, they just wanted to get the patent hold onto it, in case someone else did, and then they could get money from them. Also, sometimes patent holders have held their patents for a number of years, or decades, they might be willing at this point to allow you to produce their idea, for a few percentage points in royalties. Therefore, if someone already has the patent, you can work with them with some sort of exclusive agreement for a particular industry niche or application, and only give them a few percentage points. Everyone wins.

They just license the patent to you for your specific use, therefore you can start making it, and selling it. That's just as good right? Sure it is, and you don't have to go get the patent, you only have to give them a few percentage points - that saves you time, as the patent process can take years, and cost tens of thousands of dollars. So in this case, it might even be better. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on.

FYI: Oh, one last thing, I am not a patent attorney, and you do need to do a legal bona fide patent search even if you don't find anything online before you start the patent process. You'll need a good patent attorney for this, and be very wary of people promising you a turnkey patent online, not all of them are savory characters - how do you think I know that? Let's just call it; hard knocks and experience.