Alliances

Specialist

One of my specialties is legal guidance in setting up alliances, in whatever form or magnitude. Through my contribution to the various alliances of Royal Philips (for example the Senseo coffee machine) and other technology driven companies, as well as consultancy firms, I am one of the very few legal specialist in this field.

In an alliance often two or more organisations run part of their business jointly, either or not based on revenue sharing, but in any case with a shared decision structure. This type of cooperation demands a lot of flexibility from the organisations taking part, and is significantly different from an acquisition transaction or setting up an – even long standing - OEM relation. A specialist really can add substantial value here.

Network

In view of my alliance related activities, I am member of a network of non-legal alliance managers and advisors. Next to that I am a member of the international association of alliance professional: A.S.A.P. (Association of strategic Alliance Professional) (http://www.strategic-alliances.org/) and I sponsor the Dutch chapter of this organisation (www.asapnederland.nl) .

A few legal aspect typically related to alliances are:

- Governance: how are decisions taken and who is responsible for them

- Intellectual Property (such as patents, trademarks, copy rights, know how). Who is the owner, who can use it and for what, protection, enforcement etcetera.

- Termination of an alliance, and completion of the cooperation or an early termination, consequences of termination for access to intellectual property rights, continued activities as a phase out period etcetera.

-  Mediation clauses

-  Revenue sharing. How to agree on a scheme?

What other items play a role in this respect? I have published an article on the global A.S.A.P. website, where I summarise these aspects. See this article.