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Alchemy is not only one of the most exiting, refreshing and original brands to be licensed recently, but is also about the easiest and most hospitable to deal with, as Alchemy do it themselves! You’re dealing directly with the brand creators, who also have had much experience at being licensees, and know exactly how licensing should not be done!
Alchemy Licensing, Hazel Drive, Leicester, LE3 2JE England.
Telephone: +44 (0)116 2824 824 Fax: +44 (0)116 2825 202 Email:
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Licensing Proposal Guide
We hope that the following will be a helpful and easy summery about Alchemy’s licensing operation and quickly show how to become an Alchemy Licensee and what would be expected in a proposal.
‘Alchemy Gothic’ is Alchemy’s own best known product brand name and trademark, but also, for licensing purposes, ‘Alchemy Gothic’, and ‘A7-Alchemy Licensed Designs’ are brand names available to Alchemy’s licensees, representing their distinctively famous gothic artwork, designs and characters. And now, in addition, Alchemy have established with spectacular success, their latest ‘UL13 Alchemy’ brand, anthologizing the contemporary urban and alternative lifestyles including tattoo and retro styles, rock festival and biker cultures.
First, a Note of Reassurance
Our Licensees are Alchemy’s brand envoys and revenue earners. The better you do, the better Alchemy does! We want to help you to provide the best, and to succeed.
We regard a license as a partnership - one in which there should be mutually beneficent opportunities. Both parties must respect each other and work closely together, combining each other's strengths to achieve extraordinary results, which alone might never be possible.
Alchemy Carta Ltd., (the Licensor) and our regional agents are fully and actively supportive of all of our Licensees. Alchemy Studios will do all that is reasonably possible, and in good time, to advise and work with each Licensee, providing them with all appropriate images/designs, etc., prioritizing speedy approvals and helping to meet their marketing deadlines.
Contracts
Alchemy are also long-suffering veteran Licensees, (in the rock music sector). We contemptibly dislike 'legalese' and weknow how Licensees should and would like to be treated. Our contracts are written in plain English and are rarely longer than 3 x A4 pages long. No legal experts are necessary to read or interpret them and points are negotiable. Licensees are our mutual partners and therefore we are respectful, fair and realistic with our terms.
Art & Designs
All of Alchemy’s images can all be viewed online in the Alchemy Art Library . Here you will see two libraries, one each for Alchemy Gothic and UL13 Alchemy. In each of these can be viewed thumbnails of all images and graphics available. Once registered, licensees and candidates will be able to log-on to access larger versions of the images for visualizing, copying and product development, and also download each brand's unique style guides.
If you like what you see and can visualize a partnership opportunity, and you would like to go-on to suggest a license with Alchemy, you will need to consider the following main points to include in your proposal.
An Alchemy licensing proposal should always include the following 12 main deal points:
Note: The more ‘demanding’ any proposed terms, (i.e. type, number and commerciality of Categories, the Property requirements, size of Territory, level of Exclusivity, length of Term, etc), the higher the Guarantee (and Advance) would need to be to secure it.
Category/Product Type: (e.g. mobile phone downloads / posters / T-shirts / watches, etc)
Property & Quota: (image/design requirements and/or number of intended products)
Brand: (e.g. Alchemy Gothic, UL13, or other)
Territory: (e.g. UK only / EU/ North America / China & HK, The World excluding North America, etc)
Term*: (e.g. 2 Years, [i.e. 8 x Quarters])
Channels of Distribution: (e.g. mail-order / standard retail / distributor / online, etc)
Royalty Rate: (in %)
Guarantee: (USD$/€/UK£ ?,000.00; your minimum guaranteed annual royalty)
Advance: (USD$/€/UK£ ?,000.00; One-off payment, usually 50% of annual guarantee)
Exclusivity**: (e.g. None, or 'Exclusive for Category within the Channel, Term & Territory', etc)
Required Marketing Start: (e.g. 3rd Quarter '10)
Preferred Contract Start Date*: (e.g. 2nd Quarter [1st July] '10)
* Following contract execution, a discretionary period may be added and artwork released prior to the official Start Date, for the purposes of product development and marketing.
** The more Exclusive the terms, of course, the more it deprives Alchemy and their other potential Licensees of opportunities to exploit these Categories during the Term.
Quarterly Scheduling
Royalty reporting is always done Quarterly, at the end of each Quarter’s month, (31st of March – 30th June – 30th September – 31st December), and the Required Marketing Start always begins on one of these Quarters, (1st January – 1st April – 1st July – 1st October).
Other important elements that our license will include:
Sell-off: A sell-off period, (usually 90 days), will be included after the termination of an agreement. Any remaining stocks after this date will be disposed of in a manner agreed upon by both parties.
Accounting: Quarterly reports/statements are required and are submitted to both the Alchemy Accounts Manager and to the Licensing Secretary, and all due royalties paid within 30 days of those dates, directly into our bank or to our UK, Leicester address.
Marketing, Branding & Trade Marks: Each licensed product must be clearly promoted and sold under the correct branding allocated and agreed upon. Also, all images and products need to be protected by an approved copyright line. Prominent branding should also feature in all relevant packaging, POS, signage and promotional media.
Approvals: A product's proposal, development and approvals procedure is outlined within our contract. All products must be fully and finally approved by Alchemy before going into production. Each final product must be sampled-to and fully approved by Alchemy before any goods are offered for sale or shipped.
Licensor’s Samples: An agreed number of archive/display copies of each approved product will be required to be sampled to Alchemy, in the UK, within 30 days of release.
Renewal Option: Subject to the success of the project and to both parties being satisfied, The Licensee will always have the option and the first refusal to extend their license to a further term, by negotiation.
Hopefully, this is all reasonably clear and helpful, however, if you should have any queries at all, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.
Geoff Kayson
Designer, Licensing Director & Chairman – Alchemy Carta Ltd.
Contact:
Licensing Secretary
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Telephone: +44 (0)116 2824 824
Fax: +44 (0)116 2825 202
Alchemy Licensing, Hazel Drive, Leicester, LE3 2JE, England.
www.alchemy-licensing.com
Copyright Ownership
Alchemy Studios are the creators of all the brand names and original material known as The Property, (see * below). Alchemy is legally entitled to license the use of this Property and remains the exclusive copyright holder.
*The term ‘Property‘, (short for Intellectual Property), means any of the collections and brand names, (Alchemy Gothic™, A7-Alchemy Licensed Designs™, UL13 Alchemy™ Alchemy England™, Alchemy SubRosa™, etc.), and all that they represent, (including original concepts, characters, names, storylines, art and illustrations, designs, drawings, models, logos and trademarks, etc). All such Intellectual Property is produced by Alchemy Studios and belongs solely to Alchemy Carta Ltd., the Licensor, who bears full and legal responsibility for the Property’s originality and authenticity. This Property will always remain the exclusive copyright and property of Alchemy Carta Ltd. England.
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