Lisenssifraamia

Lisenssifraamia, often referred to as license farming, is a practice where entities acquire and hold licenses primarily for the purpose of generating revenue from their resale or sublicensing to others. This model is distinct from traditional businesses that develop and utilize licenses to support their core operations or products. Instead, license farmers focus on the acquisition, management, and subsequent commercialization of intellectual property rights as their main economic activity.

The licenses in question can span a wide range of areas, including software, patents, trademarks, and copyrights. License farmers may acquire these rights through various means, such as purchasing from inventors, startups, or even larger corporations looking to divest non-core assets. Once acquired, they negotiate agreements with potential users, charging fees for the right to use the licensed intellectual property. This can involve direct licensing to end-users or sublicensing to other companies.

This business model has drawn both praise and criticism. Proponents argue that license farming can incentivize innovation by providing a market for intellectual property and allowing inventors to monetize their creations without needing to manage the complex aspects of commercialization. They suggest it can also lead to wider adoption of technologies as licenses are made available to a broader range of businesses. Critics, however, sometimes express concerns about entities that they perceive as holding patents solely to sue infringers, a practice often termed patent assertion entities or "trolls." The ethical considerations and economic impact of license farming remain a subject of ongoing discussion within legal and business communities.