Journal of Intellectual Property (J Intellect Property; JIP)

KCI Indexed
OPEN ACCESS, PEER REVIEWED

pISSN 1975-5945
eISSN 2733-8487
Research Article

A Study on the Sublicensing System of Intellectual Property Rights

President, License Plus, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to Sucheol Kim (h2oiron@naver.com)

Volume 21, Number 2, Pages 119-138, June 2026.
Journal of Intellectual Property 2026;21(2):119-138. https://doi.org/10.34122/jip.2026.21.2.119
Received on March 06, 2026, Revised on March 26, 2026, Accepted on June 05, 2026, Published on June 30, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 Korea Institute of Intellectual Property.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Abstract

Sublicensing in the context of intellectual property rights refers to a license granted by a licensee to a third party under the authority granted to the licensee. Depending on a license strategy of the owner of the intellectual property rights, sublicensing can be an effective way of commercializing intellectual property rights. It is a type of technology transaction that evolves with a monetization of intellectual property rights. However, intellectual property laws do not include many provisions for sublicensing. Even where sublicensing provisions exist, they are not uniform across various forms of intellectual property rights, creating considerable uncertainty room in interpretation. Therefore, to enhance the potential for technology transactions through sublicensing, it is necessary to consider the sublicense system from an integrated intellectual property perspective, thereby contributing to technological and industrial development. Accordingly, this study proposes an integrated framework and policy direction for the sublicensing system.
Keywords

intellectual property rights, licensing, sublicensing, patents, trademarks, copyright law

Notes

Conflicts of Interest

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Funding

The author received manuscript fees for this article from Korea Institute of Intellectual Property.

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