Trademark licenses. The licensor is under a duty to record the license with the Trademark Office, although no penalty attaches to a failure to do so. Failure does not affect the validity of the license itself, but the license cannot then be asserted against a good-faith third party — and in practice proof of recordal is often asked for when enforcing, when filing platform complaints, and when the licensee wants to sue in its own name.
Patent licenses. A license agreement may be recorded with CNIPA after execution. As with trademarks, recordal is not a condition for the agreement's validity.
Copyright licenses. No filing is required, but an exclusive right of use must be granted in writing.
Cross-border licensing raises additional considerations under technology import/export controls and contract registration requirements.
In practice, record the license whether or not the law obliges you to, particularly for an exclusive or a sole license, and in any case where the licensee may need to sue in its own name. The agreement should also deal expressly with the licensee's authority to enforce and with how the costs of litigation are shared.
