The entity that has the patent rights may not be the owner listed on the patent document

The legal owner of a patent is designated as the "Assignee" on United States patents and as the "Applicant" on patents in the rest of the world.

Patent law gives the patent owner the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, and importing the patented product and from using the patented process, as well as using, offering for sale, selling, or importing a product obtained directly from a patented process. These rights are tradeable. The typical form of trade is a license, in which some or all of the rights may be transferred. For example, the patent owner may license only some of the claims in a patent, all of the claims but only in a particular field of research, all of the rights but only in certain countries, or the right to make and use but not the right to sell. Other types of licenses may also be granted.

A license is a legal agreement, subject to Federal, state, and local regulatory authorities, by which a patent owner or assignee promises not to take action to exclude a licensed party from making, using, or selling an invention. A license may be for patented, or patent pending technology, or for unpatented biological materials.

A patent license grants a licensee the right to exclude others from utilizing a technology, but does not grant the right for the licensee to make or use the technology. For a licensee to be able to practice the licensed invention, the licensee must have freedom to operate, which is independent from the right to exclude others from practicing the invention as provided by the license. As such, it is quite possible to get a license on technology that is "dominated" by patents held by others. Example: Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of plants.

There are many types of licenses, but the two main types are “exclusive licenses” and “non-exclusive” licenses. An exclusive license limits the use of the invention to a single group or entity, while a nonexclusive license allows for use by multiple parties. As a general rule, a non-exclusive licensee cannot sue a non-licensed entity for patent infringement. The non-exclusive licensee must demand that the patent owner take steps to enforce the patent rights. An exclusive licensee generally can sue for patent infringement.

Unlike the ownership of a patent, which is a matter of public record, the details of licensing arrangements are often kept private, which often makes it difficult to determine who holds the rights to a licensed patent.

In this landscape, the legal owner is noted. The cautionary note is that the legal owner may not be the party that is in control of the rights you want access to.

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