Bobbi Mark, a presenter at the Apple Publishers Forum, is a New York-based consultant with expertise in intellectual property rights negotiations. Her expertise has typically been that of a seller, not a buyer, of rights. This is a summation of her presentation.

The first thing to keep in mind when licensing new technologies is to be reasonable in your demands, to allow new businesses to get off the ground. Think of the long-term benefits of being reasonable now, rather than short-term windfalls.

Specifics of negotiating:

1. Think about the best interests of all parties.

That includes buyer, seller, author/illustrator and consumer.

2. Negotiate an appropriate timeframe for the license.

If the buyer cannot afford a high advance — even for a property for which the publisher paid an extraordinary sum — determine a reasonable advance he or she can afford, and tailor the terms of the license to match it. Prenegotiate renewal terms (specifically, the length of renewal and the advance against royalties) where appropriate.

3. Don’t exploit the innocence of new developers.

Don’t take advantage of a licensee’s ignorance of traditional contractual terms, since the licensee will invariably know more about new technologies than you do — and your one-upsmanship could come back to haunt you. Always try to build working partnerships, not adversarial relationships.

4. Be sure to define clearly the technologies at hand.

In terms of contractual language, be as specific as possible in this quickly growing and changing field and limit licenses to as few applications as possible. Give the developer room for economies of scale, but if the particular application or platform isn’t exploited within a predetermined “reasonable time frame,” the contract should state clearly that the license for the particular application reverts to the proprietor.

5. Be flexible about payment.

Money isn’t everything, and there are good alternatives to monetary compensation. There’s free advertising on product packaging or in the catalog; free art work, e.g., art from the electronic packaging may be usable on the paperback reprint’s cover; and free product — an author/illustrator may prefer to have 100 discs with a retail price of $19.95 than 50 percent of a $1,000 advance.

6. Royalties are very important.

The royalty rate, more than an advance, sets an industry precedent. If you are a seller, go for a higher royalty rather than a higher advance; if the buyer is having cash flow problems he or she will also prefer this. For unit royalties, determine which makes more sense in the marketplace: a percentage of net receipts or retail price, or a fixed dollar amount (if the software will mainly be bundled with hardware).

7. Agents, or co-ownership of rights.

First be sure the author/illustrator contract is clear as to who has the rights to license specific electronic publishing rights. Is it the publisher, or the author/agent? Then determine whether a particular deal is covered under the information storage and retrieval clause, the electronic publishing clause, or the commercial rights clause.

If ownership isn’t clear, determine an equitable way to split proceeds so that both agent and publisher get a cut. If a split is not predetermined, determine something that’s equitable.

Finally, to avoid unnecessary aggravation, overlap, misunderstanding and phone tag, only one person — the rights director or agent, whoever had the initial contact with the licensee — should negotiate on behalf of the author/illustrator.

Bobbi Mark