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First Sin:
Sloth is the avoidance of work. It begins with a failure to plan and then gets worse.
In the legal arena being lazy and not keeping records is damning. Records are invaluable. Make
and keep records of phone calls, meetings and negotiations. Records are needed for preparing and
defending licences. The simple solution is to make and keep diary notes and file notes.
Effective contracts record intentions fully. Contract drafters suffering from sloth avoid crafting
solutions with advice. Instead they cut and paste template licences. Commercial and practical
realities are then rarely captured. So when misunderstandings arise the parties race to lawyers to
unravel vague contracts. Don’t sign generic licence agreements, customise them.
A licence is not just all about law! Overcome sloth, combine good legal advice and templates with
best practices in management, design, marketing and IT. Solutions are integrated, not pasted.
Remedy: Think, record and plan ahead

Second Sin:
Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, at all costs. When it is excessive, in licensing it
results in unrealistic deals and arrangements.
Put a value on your intellectual property. Understand the different implications of exclusive and
non-exclusive licences. Legally, an exclusive licence can give the licensee key additional rights, eg
to take legal action against infringers. Weigh up the pros and cons and only then decide the
type of licence and conditions to use.
Intellectual property is created by humans, not machines. Treat your collaborators fairly.
Collaborators need to work together to create and share value from IP and the licensing of IP.
Ensure you have appropriate contracts in place. Reflect and contractually regulate the relationship
between IP creators, owners, agents, investors, developers, distributors and marketers. As a
general rule, put contracts in place at the start of any collaboration. If a key player gets greedy,
your IP may be eternally damned! Test scenarios, be proactive, register and protect your IP.
Remedy: Take a fair share

Third Sin:
Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities. Inventors and designers swept away by the thrill of
creation can become too precious about feedback. This can be passion… or the first sign of pride.
Pride blinds if it goes unchecked. If blindness persists, dire consequences can follow, eg lost
assets, broken relationships and disputes. If your passion is morphing to pride, learn to be a better
listener and actively seek feedback and advice.
Humility helps cure pride. Creators and managers are well advised to swallow their pride and
collaborate with others, using the framework confidentiality and collaboration agreements.
Licensors and licensees should actively keep up with the times and management know-how. Be
humble and seek advice. Prevention of problems by executives can be cheaper than by lawyers.
Test positions and engage independent professionals. Seek constructive and objective criticism.
There is a reason for the existence of graphic designers, marketing specialists, product testers, PR
consultants and even lawyers. However, ultimately, executives must unify and apply the advice.
Remedy: Take advice

Forth Sin:
Envy is the desire for the traits, status, abilities, or situations of others.
The benefits from envying and copying are short term and involve high legal risks. The alternative
is to be creative, inventive, novel, unique or original. Originality is the golden thread of IP law.
Weave that thread with “legal design” skills. Use creative IP lawyers who can apply legal design
skills to the work of your production team at the concept stage. Together they should increase
your IP legal monopoly. IP legal monopoly is the dividend from originality.
Their essential joint concept stage tasks include performing full and proper IP and marketplace
searches, conducting good market research, engaging and contracting talented people and
effectively integrating their contributions.
Mavericks who act on envy leave a trail for lawyers to follow in court cases. Astute licensors focus
on the ends achieved by others, not on copying their IP means. If you must copy elements, only
do so on IP legal advice – or get a licence.
Remedy: Be original

Fifth Sin:
Lust is an inordinate craving for pleasure.
Leave lustful rapture for your products to your customers. For yourself, as a licensor or licensee,
pause and repeatedly ask “What if?”.
Do it because your licence contracts are your foundation. They can make you or break you. By all
means press ahead with deadlines to launch the product. However, conduct several “What if?”
sessions beforehand. Too often people lust for the need for speed. Lust drives fads. Fads rarely
create long tails, backlists, back catalogues or new models, editions and versions.
Lust feeds only immediate appetites. In licensing and merchandising, the “What if?” process
requires you to test software, edit text, finesse graphics, check legals, register IP, check strategies
and focus on gaps and weaknesses. Project management screw ups which land on a lawyer’s
desk are re-named “legal matters”.
Focus on long term visions and tested plans. Those that pause can say no to lust.
Remedy: Question your desires

Sixth Sin:
Wrath or anger is manifested in the individual who opts for fury.
Our experience is that the cost, complexity, unpredictability and stress of commercial and
IP disputes and litigation can be avoided in 90% of cases. Most result from simple errors, not
abstract legal issues. Missing signatures or dates and poor documents or records create project
management uncertainties. In litigation, lawyers and courts interpret these uncertainties.
If a legal issue arises - reflect, assess and respond in a measured way. Seek advice and objective
opinion. Don’t wrathfully shoot off your mouth or an email which you may regret. Instead, carefully
remove issues before they become problems.
Think defensively, respond proactively. In commerce - expect misunderstandings, differences
of view, varying recollections of what was said, and even unprofessional performance. Work to
avoid these shortfalls and plan for recovery if they happen. Wrath is a blind and bludgeoning rage
against a perceived wrongdoer. It is hardly ever a solution.
Remedy: Anger management

Seventh Sin:
Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.
Over-licensing an IP property is gluttonous. The indigestion affects IP owners, licensors, licensees
and ultimately consumers… who stop buying. A market flooded with too many or poor quality
products hurts everyone. The equation is simple: over-licensing or poor licensing = brand
destruction.
To avoid over-licensing: assess what exclusivity means for your property. Ask: what are the
values our property stands for? Then reflect conclusions in your licensing contracts. Use licensing
contracts and other agreements and mechanisms to impose market planning scenarios and map,
regulate and set standards for production and consumption.
To avoid over-licensing: use licensing contract clauses to control gluttony. Impose
obligations and KPIs and control, monitor, review and evaluate the performance of stakeholders.
Don’t use generic contracts. Adapt and modulate provisions to reflect changing market
intelligence. Send contractual notices requiring licensees to change and tweak launches and
campaigns responding to consumer feedback.
Remedy: Eat and drink in moderation

Our five service areas for clients in contracting, licensing and merchandising
Asset Evaluation
Record Management Contract Planning
Auditing portfolios of trade
Document retention Contract-related strategic,
marks, patents, copyrights
policies business and product
and confidential information
planning
House styles for legal
Branding strategies and
documentation Enterprise structuring
trade mark registrations;
Policy manuals for legal Human resource planning productisation advice and
compliance in record and management positioning advice
creation and dealings eg
privacy and confidentiality Organisational structuring, Intellectual property
franchising, partnerships considerations for
Record management and corporate structuring technology management
techniques and standards and product development !
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Collaborations
that minimise legal risk contracts !
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documentation
Our five service
Asset Management Contracting areas for
contracting
Portfolio management Contract drafting and \"
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Intellectual property licensing
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knowledge management
advice and
advice and systems Contractual stipulations for documents
performance management