Flexible licenses. More of the revenue. Agents doing the work.
A License is composed from channels, categories, territories and any mark, under the licensor's own rule book. What fits is decided immediately, so products reach market sooner and royalties come from the sales that actually happened. Agents carry the steps; people approve the ones that matter.
For licensors
A university, an athletic department, or another licensor can run the program in-house, with a team of one. Agents review submissions against the rule book and brand kit, soft-approve products that fit, issue the License, turn the brands' reported sales into royalty statements, and share the kit. One person sets the rules and decides what the rules hold back. No outside licensing agency, and no large long-term contract with one.
- 01
Start from a rule-book template
Pick a template, then set which categories, channels and territories are granted automatically, which need review and which are blocked. Add the documents a brand must have on file, and your fees.
- 02
Upload your marks
Logos with their variants, plus phrases and taglines, each with a permanent ID like RSU-0001 and its own royalty rate. Group them as you like.
- 03
Publish your brand kit
Add colors and usage guidelines, then make the kit public or keep it private.
- 04
Let the rule book decide
Applications are issued or denied on the spot, and products are approved, soft-approved or denied, as far as you let the rules decide. You review the rest, amend Licenses, and receive royalty payouts.
For brands
- 01
Sign up and connect your store
Add your Shopify storefront and Amazon listings; verify you own the store.
- 02
Apply for Licenses
Choose marks, channels and territories. The licensor's rule book answers immediately or sends it to the licensor.
- 03
Submit products
Pick products from your store, declare every mark on them, and get a decision per licensor.
- 04
Report sales
Send the month's Shopify orders or Amazon report. Royalties are computed per licensor, and a person attests the month.
Channels, categories, territories and marks.
A Sportsmarks License isn't a group of logos with a royalty rate attached. It spells out what the brand may do: the sales channels it may sell through (Shopify, Amazon, wholesale), the product categories it may make, the territories it may sell in, and every mark it may use, whether a single logo, a logo group or a phrase.
The licensor's rule book is the template. If the licensor lets it, a request that fits is issued on the spot. One that breaks a rule is denied with the rule cited, and the rest lands in the licensor's queue. A License is never soft-approved: the brand signs it, and Sportsmarks countersigns as the licensor's agent. After signing, the licensor can propose amendments and renewals: more marks, other channels or territories, negotiated rates or a new end date. Licensors can also suspend, reinstate or terminate a License; sales made before termination stay licensed.
One submission can carry several Licenses.
Declare every mark on a product, even when they belong to different licensors. Sportsmarks creates one claim per licensor and evaluates each against that licensor's License and rule book. The product is approved when every claim is approved, and royalties stack across licensors.
Products come with their variants and SKUs, so later sales resolve to the right approval across every channel.
- ApprovedRiver State UniversityRSU-0001, RSU-0031 · its own License and rule book
- ApprovedCoastal StateCSU-0004 · its own License and rule book
Approved only when every licensor approves. A missing License is drafted as a bundled application.
Checked against the licensor's marks, decided by its rule book.
Each mockup is checked for the licensor's marks: logos by their artwork, phrases by their words. Declared marks that don't appear, and marks that appear without being declared, are caught. Sportsmarks also assigns the product's category from its title, type, tags, description and images.
The rule book then decides, citing the rule IDs it applied. AI only supplies facts; it never makes the call, and nothing auto-approves when the check can't run.
- Declared marks found on the mockupRSU-0001 detected
- No undeclared marksnothing else detected
- Category allowed by the rule bookApparel › T-shirts
- Channel covered by the LicenseShopify
- ApprovedAutoApproved, final.
- ApprovedSoft approveApproved now; the licensor may object within a window.
- WaitsLicensor reviewWaits for a person.
- DeniedSoft denyDenied; the brand may appeal once.
- DeniedBlockedDenied, final.
Live store data for submissions and royalty reports.
Shopify storefronts are read live and re-crawled nightly. Amazon comes in by listing import and the All Orders report; there is no live Amazon connection.
Sportsmarks reads each Shopify storefront's product feed live, recommends what looks licensed, and lets you submit straight from the store. Synced products are re-crawled nightly, so a listing that goes live before approval is flagged to the licensor.
For sales, your agent's Shopify connector sends raw orders, or you upload Shopify's order export or Amazon's All Orders report. Every unit links to a product variant by SKU or barcode, duplicates are dropped, and each licensor gets one royalty line at the approved rate.
| Source | Data | How |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify storefront | Products, variants, SKUs, imagesLive feed, nightly re-crawl | Live feed, nightly re-crawl |
| Shopify orders | Monthly salesAgent connector or order export | Agent connector or order export |
| Amazon listings | ASINs, seller SKUsListing import | Listing import |
| Amazon orders | Monthly salesAll Orders report | All Orders report |
| Wholesale | Sales by retailerTemplate CSV or API | Template CSV or API |
Your marks, phrases and colors in one kit.
Every licensor has a brand kit: logos and their variants, phrases and taglines, colors with hex and Pantone references, and usage guidelines. Brands see what each mark costs and whether their License covers it.
Make the kit public to get a shareable page and a public API endpoint, or keep it private behind sign-in. Artwork files download only for brands whose License covers the mark.
- River Navy#0B2545primary
- Gold#F2A900secondary
- Slate#5B6770neutral