Whether you’re a healthcare facility owner or operations manager or a talented business that creates innovative solutions for the healthcare industry, medical technology licensing directly impacts you. In this article, you’ll learn some vital concepts that may help ensure you’re getting the most for your money as a healthcare facility and whether licensing is a concept that may benefit you as a creator of medical technology.
To learn more about how these considerations may impact you, call Larsen Law Offices, LLC to discuss your needs and goals: 303-520-6030. Larsen Law Offices, LLC is located in Denver, Colorado. We provide representation and guidance on medical technology licensing across the United States.
Medical Technology Licensing Considerations for Healthcare Facilities
Healthcare facilities play an important role in our society. While accepting helpful technological advancements with open arms, it’s imperative to consider the following to ensure that your facility is getting the best possible benefits for its financial investment.
Current needs and forecasting. Healthcare facilities must have clarity on their current needs. The more you understand exactly what the facility needs as well as why it is needed, the better off you’ll be when making this important decision on behalf of the facility. Of equal importance is the ability for you to forecast future needs. Regardless of whether your healthcare facility serves only one small community or is part of a larger organization that provides care to millions of people each year, forecasting must be done. Forecasting includes several factors. However, since we’re specifically discussing the potential of licensing medical technology, the future size of the facility as well as its future growth in patients served are two critical factors. Both of these factors could impact licensing as some medical technology providers may require a license for each person who will use the technology or a license for each piece of technology.
Whether the facility wants or needs an exclusive license. As a healthcare facility, an exclusive license allows your organization to be the only one that may use the intellectual property in some way. This could be using it as is or even using it as a base on which you’ll create future innovative solutions. A non-exclusive license, simply stated, does provide exclusivity. It is available for more than one facility to use. It may or may not allow your facility to build upon it. If it does, it’s important to consider whether your facility will be able to keep those advancements to itself or if it is required to share them. There are other arrangements related to exclusivity that may be negotiated as well. An attorney with a successful history of negotiating medical technology licensing solutions can help healthcare facilities get the best possible return for their financial investment.
Offering telemedicine as a service. Telemedicine continues to thrive and will also continue to expand to better serve the community. It helps many get affordable medical attention for several conditions. If your healthcare organization offers or plans to offer telemedicine, it’s crucial to research your potential options to determine which may best serve your facility and your patients.
Related: Patient Portals: Medical Technology Best Practices
This isn’t a full list of considerations to assist healthcare facilities commit to licensing the right medical technology. Regardless of the size of the organization, it has specific needs. To discuss the needs of your healthcare organization, call Larsen Law at 303-520-6030 to find out how we can help you determine how to choose the technology that provides you with the best possible return of investment.
Medical Technology Licensing Considerations Its Creators
If your business creates medical technology, licensing possibilities are just as important to you as they are to healthcare facilities. The idea of licensing your medical technology to a healthcare provider, organization, or other related business can be very exciting. However, there are considerations for you as well.
Whether an exclusive or non-exclusive license is best. There are several factors that affect this decision. One of those factors is the size of your target market. Is more financially sound for you to create an exclusive license for a specific organization or other business or do you have something that is better shared with more than one interested prospect? Another consideration is whether the organization or organizations licensed can build upon what you created. If they can, who receives the rights to the improvements? Medical technology licensing doesn’t have to fall fully under exclusive or non-exclusive. It can be specifically negotiated to meet the needs of you and the interested party.
Whether royalties are part of the licensing agreement and, if so, whether they are fair. Royalties may or may not be part of the licensing agreement. Providing a royalty rate that is fair to you depends on multiple factors. One of those factors is what the medical technology brings to the table for the organization interested in it. What problems does it solve and how serious are those problems? Does it prevent certain potential problems that the organization could face in the future? Another factor relates to the medical technology market. Are there any others offering what you do? If so, what makes your solution better for the market? Also, consider whether stepped-up or stepped-down royalty rates may be an option for certain medical technology licensing scenarios.
How the license actually applies to the organization. The following example is meant to simplify the concept of how the license will actually apply to the organization. It is not meant to be a true apples-to-apples comparison. If you need guidance on licensing issues, contact Larsen Law today to schedule your consultation. Consider Microsoft Office 365 as an example. It provides licenses to students, personal use, family use, or business use. Someone who is a student must prove they are a student and they get a very inexpensive, and sometimes free, license to use the software. A license for personal use is meant for use by one person. A family use license allows a family or group, with a maximum size limit, to use the software under one licensing agreement. It’s a little more expensive than a personal license or student license. A business license is more expensive. It has some of the features as a family license as it is made for a group of users. It also provides features not found in the other the other licensing arrangements. As you can see, a licensing agreement may impact its user in several ways. As a provider of medical technology, your license may be specific to certain situations.
Guidance for Medical Technology Licensing
Medical technology licensing is certainly important since it creates a financial impact on both those interested in using the technology and those creating it. Larsen Law provides guidance for medical technology licensing. To schedule your consultation, call 303-520-6030.