Under the License On Transfer (LOT) Agreement, every company that participates grants a license under its patents to the other participants that becomes effective with respect to a particular patent when that patent is transferred to a non-participant, e.g., a patent assertion entity (PAE). This structure protects LOT participants from patent attacks by the non-participant (e.g., a PAE) to which the patent is sold while completely preserving the real business uses of a participant’s patent portfolio. The Agreement includes value-preserving provisions. For example, Transfers as part of a Change of Control to a Non-Assertion Entity or qualified M&A are carved out.
The LOT Network is industry-led and independently-run. The LOT Network members are geographically and technologically diverse; a list of the members can be found here. Sophisticated patent licensing counsel representing the governing LOT Users and other companies provided input into the agreement. The LOT Agreement already covers nearly 300,000 patent assets. Please see www.lotnet.com for more information.
DISCLAIMER: The LOT and the supporting materials are available for informational purposes only and are NOT for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact a lawyer if you want to get advice with respect to any particular aspect of the LOT agreement. In addition, any comments posted herein don’t necessarily represent the views of the LOT Network or its participants. Pull requests and identification of issues are encouraged but there is no guarantee that any pull requests or identified issues will be addressed in the LOT agreement.
And no process is necessary after joining. Simply download the LOT Agreement, execute it and upload it here. If you prefer, instead of uploading your executed agreement, you can send the executed agreement by mail or overnight delivery to LOT Network Inc. at 3855 SW 153rd Drive, Beaverton, Oregon 97003 USA (Phone: +1.503.619.522), and we can upload it for you.
There is a modest administrative fee used to support the administrative operations that enable LOT Network to grow and provide even greater value to all participants. If the fee is preventing your company from joining where it otherwise would, please contact the LOT Administrator to discuss your concern.
There is no confidentiality obligation associated with joining the LOT Network.
If you are interested in learning more about joining the LOT Network, please feel free to review the following resources:
- LOT Network High Level Summary Intended for generalists.
- LOT Network Overview Intended for specialists.
For any additional questions, please contact the LOT administrator
Please see FAQs here
Have a contribution idea or want to discuss something? Please create an issue here on GitHub. Better yet, feel free to create a pull request if you have an improvement to the LOT Agreement.
LOT Agreement by "License On Transfer Agreement" ©️ 2013 LOT Network (originally published by Hayes and Schulman) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
