Proposed license agreement for process patent The Commission rendered an advisory opinion in which it…
72 F.T.C. 1047 · date not parsed · Digest No. 144
source volume section (72 F.T.C. 1047)
Text is machine-OCR of the printed volume and may contain errors. Advisory opinions are the Commission's views on proposed conduct, not binding orders.
No. 144. Proposed license agreement for process patent The Commission rendered an advisory opinion in which it informed the owner of patented process for preparing food that it could see no objection to the form of a proposed licensing agreement with the food processing industry. The proposed agreement, which was the only form of agreement to be used, was described as nonexclusive in nature and provided for the licensees to use the process and machinery at one uniform rental rate regardless of the physical location of the licensee. Although the process patent contemplates the use of the machinery and the agreement contemplates use by the licensees of that ma- ,
1048 FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSIO:- DECISIONS chinery, there is no absolute requirement that the licensees use any particular machinery in connection with the process. The hourly rental to be charged all licensees was to be measured by a meter attached to the machine and the licensor reserved the right to cancel the license if the annual rental due from operation of the machinery feIl below a stated minimum amount, unless the licensee paid the difference between the actual rental due and the required minimum. The duration of the agreement was to be for a period of five years.
The Commission advised that while it did not purport to pass upon the purely contractual aspects of the agreement, it could see no objection to the form of the agreement from the standpoint of the laws it administered, as distinguished from matters pertaining to the implementation thereof. (File No. 683 7016, released Sept. 1967.