Licensed production

Licensed production is the production under license of technology developed elsewhere. The licensee provides the licensor of a specific product with legal production rights, technical information, process technology, and any other proprietary components that cannot be sourced by the licensor.

This is an especially prominent commercial practice in developing nations, which often approach licensed production as a starting point for indigenous industrial development. While licensed production in developing nations provides stimulus to the production and technical capabilities of local industry, in many cases it remains at least partly dependent on foreign support.

History

The four most common applications of licensed production have historically been automotive engines and parts, weaponry, aircraft, and pharmaceuticals. During World War I, it was more common for licensing agreements to take place between companies in the same country; for example, Opel was granted a license to produce BMW-designed aircraft engines for the German war effort.

During the 1920s, European economists began advocating licensed production of foreign goods as the cure for "industrial particularism"—it allowed countries to bypass the costly research and development stage of acquiring products with which their own industries were unfamiliar, and refocus on the domestic manufacture of preexisting overseas designs. This allowed for a much higher rate of production, and was considerably cheaper than national sourcing and off-the-shelf acquisition. European automobile manufacturers were the first to adopt this practice, producing a number of specialized American components for their passenger cars under license. The United States not only supplied European factories with the necessary blueprints and licenses, but also sourced American-made tooling equipment accordingly, which allowed the automobile companies to optimize their production lines.