How can I license someone’s trademark?

To license someone else’s trademark, you should first contact the owner. If the mark you want to purchase is registered with a state agency or with the Patent and Trademark Office, you can search the records to find the trademark’s owner. Once you have contacted the trademark’s owner, you should negotiate the license fee, which is the amount of money over time you will pay for the right to use the trademark. Sometimes this fee will be set up as a royalty rate, where you pay a certain percentage of your profits to the trademark’s owner. The agreement you enter into with the trademark owner should also outline precisely how you are permitted to use the trademark - in what forms, and in connection with what goods and/or services.

Finally, when a trademark is licensed, the trademark owner must exercise quality control over your use of the mark (or else they risk losing their own rights to the mark), and the license agreement should include information regarding this requirement. This typically includes a requirement that you provide certain samples to the trademark owner, and that the trademark owner is permitted to inspect and otherwise monitor your use of the mark.