Should I sell my patent as an individual owner or through my LLC?

[dpark7686]

I am currently thinking about submitting my utility patent to NIKE in hopes of possibly selling them my patent or having it licensed to them.

My patent is actually assigned to me as the inventor. However, I also have an LLC which has not engaged in any business under the new LLC (I did have sales and used the patent under my previous LLC which was dissolved in 2016).

Anyhow, NIKE has a contract that I must fill out in order to submit my invention to them for an analysis. One of the contracts is for a business, and the other is for an individual inventor. What would you recommend I sign the contract as? Should I present them my idea as through a company or simply as a sole proprietor?

I'm not sure if this matters but I am already late paying the maintenance fee. I have 1 month left as the deadline to renew the patent by paying the fee.

[Brad]

Sorry this is more of a legal question that we cannot answer here nor should you get advice like this from some guy on the internet.   Please think about hiring your own local attorney that has worked on deals like this before.

I don't know of any patent reasons why you could not proceed as an individual to work with Nike although it may make you appear to be more legit if you approach them as a business rather than as a person.  Just remember that if you transfer ownership to your company then the company (not you) is the legal owner.  This becomes complicated if you ever lose control of the company or forget to pay your registration fees, etc.   For that reason I normally suggest most inventors keep the patent in their name unless absolutely necessary.