I filed a patent that is now in examination stage. I can't personally afford the legal fees to amend the claims that got rejected. However, the director of a company for which I'm doing some consulting said he would pay the legal fees to amend the claims. In compensation, I initially proposed a shared ownership but that seems to be problematic. He wants the patent for the company IP portfolio, and he says that having a shared patent ownership doesn't add value to the company in the event of an exit. I've done a bit of research on alternatives to share ownership of patents, and I see in some cases a company is created that owns the patent and then the company ownership is shared. However, I think this is not going to work in this case. So I proposed another alternative: they could own the patent but I would get a “special license” that would also give me right to a small royalty percentage of any other licensing or sales as a result of the invention, also right to use the invention but not of licensing to other parties.
My questions are: What would happened to such a license if the company gets sold? Could such a license exist independently of who owns the patent? Would such a license reduce significantly the value of the patent? and finally, are there any other alternatives that could work this case?