How does licensing a patent work?
he income would not be limited to the sales of the products. There are businesses in which royalty stream from licensing of patents are their main or only source of income. This makes these "patents" to become "products" for such companies.
Generally speaking the licensing is; when an owner of an IP right (licensor) gives to licensee the permission to use the right, while keeping to retain the ownership of that right.
Permission is usually grantee through a written contract, where, amongst other things, the subject matter , the purpose, the territory, the period of time are defined and the consideration for it is agreed to by the parties.