Once you have a patent, it's up to you to make it profitable. On its own, a patent has no value. Value arises only when a patent owner takes action to realize commercial gain from his or her monopoly position. There are several basic approaches to making money from a patent.
Some inventors start new companies to develop and market their patented inventions.
This is not typical, however, because the majority of inventors would rather invent than run a business. More often, an inventor makes arrangements with an existing company to develop and market the invention. Or, in a common variation of this arrangement, the inventor may sell all the rights to the invention for a lump sum. A license is written permission to use an invention. The license may be for the duration of the patent or for a shorter period of time.