Q. What conflicts of interest are there in technology licensing?

He says he believes that R.I.M. may soon announce a technology licensing or joint product development deal with Apple Computer.

Funds are meant for further development of the prototype, technology licensing and launching the first small-scale production.

The open format is controlled by Microsoft, who provides free specifications and free irrevocable technology licensing.

But some aspects of the work, like advice on patents, technology licensing and intellectual property management, would involve entirely different competitors.

The 'too complex' complaint was specifically that attaching aggregation agreements as a condition of technology licensing made things far more complicated than they should be.

Stanford University on Thursday named Katherine Ku, a chemical engineer and inventor who holds two patents, to be director of the school's office of technology licensing.

In this capacity he was responsible for traditional intellectual property issues such as copyright and trademark, new technology licensing and content protection.

It added that it believed that all of its talks with Monsanto about technology licensing were "legitimate and appropriate business negotiations" intended to benefit its customers.

In the last year, Switchboard, like many Internet companies, has refocused on technology licensing and partnerships as once-plentiful advertising opportunities have dried up.