Licensing allows you to enter into an agreement with a patent owner to use their patent for a mutually agreed time frame. Cross-licensing, on the other hand, is a contractual arrangement where involved parties grant their patent licensing to each other. Â
Both these arrangements offer substantial advantages in terms of expenses and otherwise. Transaction costs and product development costs are lowered, and so are the costs to acquire new technology. These mutual arrangements also help in reducing the time taken to develop new products/tech. The growth of the IP industry as a whole too benefits when IP networks are shared. Â