Best Practices for Commissioning Royalty Audits
$295
About the Course
You spent years and millions of dollars conducting research. You demonstrated tenacity during the prosecution of your patents. After long negotiations, you closed a licensing agreement with a commercializer. You were patient while the licensee ramped up production.
Royalties are finally due—but your royalty statements look light. What can you do? Hire a royalty auditor to ensure you are being remitted the royalties that are rightfully yours.
This invaluable session walks listeners through the royalty auditing continuum—from negotiating royalty provisions in licensing agreements to collecting delinquent royalties
after royalty audit reports are issued. Matthew Hurewitz shares real-world “war stories” drawn from more than 25 years of royalty auditing experience.
Among the issues discussed:
- •Staffing a royalty auditing team
- •Setting underpayment thresholds that trigger licensee-paid audits
- •Differences between desk audits and full royalty audits
- •Conducting audits in view of objection and document-retention periods
- •Common causes of unreported and underreported royalties
- •Red flags indicating potential royalty underreporting
- •Discoverability and privilege issues between licensors and auditors
- •Risks of deferring royalty audits
- •The role of patent marking in facilitating royalty audits
- •Addressing “net negative sales”
- •Dealing with licensees that rebuff royalty auditors
- •Auditing agreements based on revenues versus units
- •Risks of auditors disclosing sensitive licensee information
- •Auditor duties regarding overpayments by licensees
Course Leader
Matthew A. Hurewitz
CPA
President, Hurewitz And Company
Matthew Hurewitz has more than 25 years of experience in royalty and participation compliance auditing. His audit and litigation forensic work has uncovered more than $50 million in claims.
His expertise includes litigation support and expert witness testimony, with audits spanning music, film and television, technology, and other industries
throughout the United States and internationally, including Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Mexico.
Since 2013, Matthew has served as President of Hurewitz And Company. Previously, he was managing partner of Hurewitz, Boschan & Co. LLP, spent 14 years at Wolinsky, Becker & Hurewitz, LLP, four years at Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman (Coopers & Lybrand), and two years at Ernst & Young.