Licensing
What is field-of-use licensing?
The short answer
Licensing the same patent for one application area while reserving others — for example, licensing your materials patent for automotive use while keeping medical and consumer rights for yourself or other licensees. LES survey methodology tracks field of use as a standard deal dimension because rates vary measurably by field.
The full picture
Field-of-use is how one patent becomes several revenue streams. A sensor technology might be licensed exclusively to one company for automotive, another for industrial equipment, and retained by you for consumer electronics. Each licensee gets the exclusivity they need in the market they actually serve; you keep the rest of the pie.
The catch is drafting discipline: fields must be defined tightly enough to prevent overlap disputes but broadly enough to be useful, and cross-field improvements need clear ownership rules. Done well, it's the highest-yield structure in licensing. Whether your patent has multiple licensable fields — most owners never check — is exactly the kind of question a commercialization score answers.
Where does your patent stand?
The Beyond the Patent Commercialization Score answers that — a professional, factor-by-factor read on your patent's licensing, sale, build, and partner potential.
Related questions
General information for patent owners — not legal advice. Read the disclaimer.