Foreign Licensing: An Export Alternative.

The article focuses on foreign licensing agreements. Speculation as to the use of licensing in Canada led to a survey of 160 Canadian manufacturers known to be in the export business. Known licensors were purposely included so as to provide as much information about experiences with licensing agreements as possible. Of the 59 companies replying, 21 were actively engaged in licensing, eight were contemplating licensing, and the balance had no interest in any sort of license agreement. Most of the latter group were subsidiaries of American companies. The licensed products included: special construction cements, stoves, medicines, pens, foundation garments, semi-trailer chassis, plastic resins, auto carpets, isotropic instruments and a host of consumer, goods. Regionally, Western Europe ranked foremost as the best current market for licensing. Know-how and technical assistance were the rights most commonly licensed, frequently combined with a patent or trade mark arrangement. Respondents said there were few difficulties encountered in servicing contracts. In one instance, poor quality caused a cancellation of the agreement.