A common objective of a brand owner when entering into a licensing agreement is to ensure that its licensee assumes all responsibility for manufacturing the licensed products and all liability for consequences as a result thereof. While the typical trade mark licence includes certain indemnification provisions aimed at ensuring that the licensor achieves this objective, a few recent court decisions have highlighted instances where such standard indemnification provisions do not sufficiently protect licensors. Such decisions reveal an emerging issue with respect to product liability that brand owners engaged in licensing their trade marks must pay careful attention to, namely the possibility that they will be held liable for injuries resulting from the use of a product made by its licensee even when the brand owner is not directly involved in either the manufacture or sale of the products.
