We released some cool new RoyaltyZone features last night, with more on the way soon!  Here’s what’s new:

Additional Agreement Fields
Capture and track additional license agreement data in RoyaltyZone:

1. Royalty Start Date – this replaces the “Ignore Historical” check box and lets you select any date to define the first expected royalty report
2. Account Manager - designate any RoyaltyZone user (you can add more if you need to) as the Account Manager for the agreement.  You can sort agreements by Account Manager on the Licensees page.
3. Liability Insurance Requirements – enter any insurance requirements (visible to the licensee)
4. Exclusive – enter any exclusivity terms (visible to the licensee)
5. Marketing Dates – enter any marketing date info (visible to the licensee)

Large Royalty Report Processing
RoyaltyZone has processed royalty reports as large as 52,000 sales transactions, but those big reports take some time to crunch.  Licensees uploading reports with more than 1,000 sales transactions will now be notified by email when the royalty report is calculated and ready for submission.  No more staring at a spinning wheel!  Go have some fun (or work, if you must) and RZ will ping you when the report is ready.

Improved Error Messaging for Uploads
We love to hear your feedback!  Per your requests -  we made some changes to the error messaging for sales uploads.  We improved the text content, made the display area larger, and moved the action links to a more prominent location.  The goal is to give you easy to understand instructions on how to fix data issues in your upload files.  Let us know if you have additional suggestions for improvement!

Login Management
Can’t remember your user name or need access to RoyaltyZone?  Click “Request an Account” from the login, and enter your email.  If you already have an account, you’ll receive an email with your login credentials.  If your company has a RoyaltyZone account, the account admin will asked by email to add you as a user.

Coming (very) soon: custom date Trends & Analysis reports, advertising/marketing fee management, royalty distribution improvements, and more!

The RoyaltyZone Trends and Analysis (TNA) module now provides instant access to key performance metrics for licensed properties and product categories.

Licensors can determine their best (and worst) selling properties and categories and identify opportunities to generate additional licensing revenue.

For each licensed property access:

• Royalties, Net Sales, and Quantity Sold
• # of active agreements and Ranking
• Top Categories
• Top SKU’s
• Top Licensees
• Top Territories
• Top Distribution Methods

For each product category access:

• Royalties, Net Sales, and Quantity Sold
• # of active agreements and Ranking
• Top Properties
• Top SKU’s
• Top Licensees
• Top Territories
• Top Distribution Methods

What is a licensed property? The intellectual property, normally a trademark or copyright, which could be a name, symbol, slogan, design, logo, icon, package design, image, photograph, phrase, work of authorship, or character – or any combination of these elements.

What is a product category? A group of related products that, bundled together, can be classified as a separate entity or class, such as: apparel, personal accessories, toys or electronics.

I speak to many licensing executives who want to reap the benefits of licensing automation and royalty management software, but are reluctant to get started.  Common concerns include:

• Little time to learn a new system.
• No resources to enter license agreement data and setup items.
• Want to be sure the software will work before committing scarce budget dollars.

RoyaltyZone created the QuickStart program to alleviate these concerns.  QuickStart is a risk free, no obligation trial period that puts the burden on us to prove that RoyaltyZone will deliver results for your licensing program.

What’s different about QuickStart?

1. We do all the work.  Send us your license agreements and royalty data (under NDA) and we’ll setup and populate your RoyaltyZone account for you.
2. We shrink the learning curve.  We’ll show you how to manage your agreements and licensees, collect royalties, and analyze trends and metrics.  You’ll be a power user in no time.
3. You get to actually use the software (with your data).  You’ll have access to a fully functional RoyaltyZone account for 30 days.  You’ll see how your agreements and royalty reports look and function, and measure the value RoyaltyZone delivers for your licensing program.
4. There is no cost, obligation, or risk.  QuickStart is a free service, you pay nothing unless you choose to purchase RoyaltyZone, and there is absolutely no obligation to do so.

So, what are you waiting for?  Experience how you can increase revenue, save time, and make better licensing decisions today with RoyaltyZone QuickStart.

Austin, Texas (May 18, 2009) RoyaltyZone today announced that it has entered into an agreement with the Boy Scouts of America to provide a web-based software solution for the BSA’s trademark licensing program. RoyaltyZone automates license agreement compliance processes, enabling intellectual property licensors to share license agreement terms, payment schedules, and compliance tasks with their licensees.

Licensees access a web based system to upload licensed product and sales transaction data, calculate royalties owed, submit royalty reports, view invoices and track payment status.  Automating these processes can prevent costly errors and eliminate unintentional misreporting and underpayment of royalties.

“Licensee compliance is critical to the strength of the BSA’s brands,” said David Harkins, Associate Director, Business Development, for the Boy Scouts of America. “RoyaltyZone’s ability to monitor and manage licensee compliance will support our efforts to connect the BSA’s brands with the millions of boys and their families who have been influenced by the organization for nearly a century.”

RoyaltyZone’s Software-as-a-Service business model allows users to access the application from any Internet browser, anywhere in the world, without any hardware or software to install.  Licensors and Licensees are able to securely share data and communicate with each other on license agreement compliance issues.  A flexible pricing model offers a variety of affordable subscription plans for licensing programs of all sizes.

“We are excited to be working with the licensing team at the Boy Scouts of America” said Lou Ellman, chief executive officer of RoyaltyZone.  “RoyaltyZone was created to make license agreement compliance easy to manage for everyone involved in the process.  We are pleased to assist in the operation of a licensing program that is home to one of the most consistently-recognized brands in America.”

Serving more than 4.1 million young people between 7 and 20 years of age with more than 300 councils throughout the United States and its territories, the Boy Scouts of America is the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. For more information on the Boy Scouts of America, please visit www.scouting.org.  The use of the corporation name in this document is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement or approval by the Boy Scouts of America of any product or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.

About RoyaltyZone
RoyaltyZone automates license agreement compliance processes so that trademark, copyright, and patent licensors and licensees can realize the full potential of their intellectual property licensing programs.  The company’s web-based Software as a Service (SaaS) application enables the sharing of license agreement terms and schedules, and automates product management, royalty reporting, invoicing, and payment tracking tasks.  An innovative pricing model offers a variety of affordable subscription plans for licensing programs of all sizes.  For additional information on RoyaltyZone visit www.royaltyzone.com or call 866.605.2219.

RoyaltyZone is hosting a workshop panel on license agreement compliance issues, and how to avoid them.   The session is part of the LES Winter Meeting taking place today and tomorrow in San Antonio, TX.

Lou Ellman, RoyaltyZone CEO, will be joined by Debbie Stewart of Invotex Group and Brian Cummings from The University of Utah.

RoyaltyZone will be at the AUTM 2009 Annual Meeting in Orlando next week.  Drop us a line to arrange a meeting!

AUTM is the Association of University Technology Managers.  RoyaltyZone works with a number of Tech Transfer offices to streamline and automate their license agreement compliance processes.

David Rose wrote a great article today entitled “An Overview of Artist Royalties in the Music Business by David Rose”

Mechanical Royalties, Public Performance Royalties, Digital Performance Royalties, Synchronization Royalties, and Print Music Royalties – it’s quite a complex list. Tough to keep track of who gets what, how, and when using spreadsheets and manual processes!

If your company reports and pays any of these music royalties, give RoyaltyZone a try. We can automate calculation and reporting of royalties to any of the music agencies mentioned in David’s article.  All you need to manage is your sales data, RoyaltyZone will do the rest.

Sometimes life is better than fiction: story

Restraining order issued to Affliction owner over a royalties dispute with MMAers Kim and Randy Couture.   A RoyaltyZone account would solve this problem…

Full article here

We released some exciting new functionality to RoyaltyZone last night!  Here are the new features for your royalty management pleasure:

• Improved Royalty Distribution Reports.  Create as many distribution recipients as necessary for each licensed property.  RoyaltyZone automates the creation of distribution reports and allows for deductions.

• Fully automated data uploads.  Licensees can now upload ALL of their sales and product data, with no manual entry at all.  We added upload review and data mapping functionality to make sure that all imported data is accurate and complete.
• Better SKU management.  Now you can Add or Ignore unrecognized SKUs found in your uploaded sales transactions.  This is a huge time saver and makes RoyaltyZone even easier for Licensees to use!
• Email notification management.  You now have the power to select which users will receive email notifications from RoyaltyZone (don’t let it go to your head).
• Wire Transfers. Licensees can now view your Wire Transfer instructions, mark payment sent, and capture the appropriate Wire Transfer payment information in RoyaltyZone.  
• Streamlined Licensee Invitations.  You can now view the status of your Licensee invitations, make changes if necessary, and resend invitations.  We also provide the ability to browse all of the available Licensees in RoyaltyZone.  Make new friends, or better yet, find new Licensees!
• Improved Financial History.  We added some new fields to all of the License Agreement financial performance tables to make it easier for you to see how things are going.
• Invoice Contact Info.  You now have two possible address and contact info options in RoyaltyZone – one for your company profile, and a second that will appear on your invoices.
• Disaster Recovery.  Your sensitive data is backed up every six hours and stored offsite via Amazon S3.

No rest for the weary – we are already working on the next release.  Improved product management, new royalty rate options, currency conversion, and more!