# Obtaining licensing rights



## radialhawk (Dec 16, 2008)

Anyone have any tips on how to get licensing rights? For example, I'd like to print John Deere, Case International, Allis Chalmers apparel. I've e-mailed these companys and the reply back from John Deere was no. I haven't heard back from the others. I was wondering if there is a way to schmooze these types of places into getting permission to use there logos etc.... I'm not a big company with huge distribution possibilities. Does this hurt my chances?


----------



## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

It's hard to say why they said no without knowing your sales pitch and what their exact response was. But I've seen John Deere shirts around, so maybe they have an exclusive licensee already. I would think a major part of getting a license is that you already have major distribution lined up. They need to profit off the license just as much as you, so they are going to make sure you are capable of making them money if they allow you to use their intellectual property.


----------



## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Most of the bigger companies that have logos with wide appeal enter into exclusive distributorships with other large companies, so that may be why John Deere said no, they'd already licensed someone to do t-shirts. Most times the best way to get licensing rights is to offer the company that owns the license a way to get into a new market or, as Tim said, show them how you're going to make them a bunch of money.


----------



## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

a licensor does not want to take a risk. If you walk into the meeting with manufacturing, distribution and a sales force already lined up, you will have a much greater chance of them saying yes. The licensor basically wants a guarantee, the lower the risk factor the more likely they will say yes.


----------



## radialhawk (Dec 16, 2008)

I e-mailed them through their website. In the reply they did say they have printers on contract already and pretty much left it at that. I guess, i'll have to admit I don't have much to offer them as far as big $ numbers but then again you never know. Maybe including a few designs would help for future places?


----------



## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

radialhawk said:


> Maybe including a few designs would help for future places?


You can try, but it's unlikely to help. In licensing, the name of the game is high volume production, sales and distribution.


----------

