Licensing Strategy for Dairy Giant

Project Case Study

EverEdge IP assisted a dairy manufacturing giant in the formulation of a licensing negotiation strategy to acquire a critical new piece of technology that would significantly increase the manufacturer's competitive advantage.

About Client

The client is a large New Zealand dairy cooperative and exporter. Its revenue accounts for significant proportion of New Zealand's total GDP.

The Business Problem

The dairy manufacturer developed a new technology which provides a significant competitive advantage against its offshore rivals and enables it to deliver product more effectively and flexibly. However to make the technology work the challenge lay in acquiring equipment and technology from multiple overseas suppliers. Negotiations to access the technology needed to be swift, exclusive, and discrete so as not to alert competitors and ensure a good price was met. With little direct experience of licens¬ing, the dairy manufacturer approached EverEdge IP to help it formulate a licensing and negotiation strategy that would enable it to achieve these goals.

EverEdge IP Solution

EverEdge IP worked closely with key client staff to fully understand the drivers for the client and the bigger market picture. EverEdge IP then completed a comprehensive review of the intellectual property behind the vari¬ous target technologies. In depth research was also conducted around the dynamics of equipment market and the suppliers in the industry. From here a detailed outline of the dairy manufacturer's commercial and negotiation options emerged – it was determined that licensing, not corporate acquisition or mere supply would be the most effective path to follow.

The next step was to develop a comprehensive, stage-by-stage negotiation blueprint to acquire each piece of technology (some in parallel, some in isolation), including a detailed outline of the "must haves" and "nice to haves" for each technology from a licensing perspec¬tive. EverEdge IP advised on the formation of a strong negotiation team within the manufacturer and helped to coach them on the license negotiation plan which would be executed out over a 12 month period.

The Result

The client has a clear plan moving forward to secure its competitive advantage and the internal team has the capability to deliver against the plan.