This is the real question and its answer has many moving parts. None of us will ever know all its details. It is also a very strategic question all buyers have to think about. In fact, Edig's actions are restricted by the answers its clients will give in the process of deciding. Suppose we consider a large client. The motivation of such a client amounts of using Nuchi in its apps. and also of preventing the competition from doing the same. If Edig has already licensed it to several prospective users, it makes little sense, if any, for such a client to buy it since many firms will be able to use it and relatively speaking the structure and capability of the indusrty will not changed. The motivation of preventing others from using it is no longer there. Of course, the buyer will enjoy a stream of revenues and fees that Edig will pass on but the question then becomes whether these returns justify the initial investment of this acquisition. This is a question independent of what Edig does and it is predicated on the risk-reward calculus of the buyer. Under these circumstances the likelihood is high that the prospective buyer will rather prefer to do the licensing itself. Preventing the use of the IP by others is as bit important as the use itself. To all these you may want to add a third alterrnative: regardless whether Edig has lecenses Nuchi or not the decision of a big client may very well depend on who has done the licensing sofar. If only small firms have done it , the large client may still want to buy it so by charging high fees may exclude other large buyers from using it. But then again the competition might buy one of the small firms that have that use the Nuchi and get the use of it through the back door. As you can see there is a fairly large number of permutations in this decision making and quite a bit depends on how the attorneys write the contracts.
My conclusion is that Edig should try to find a buyer before it license the product because that may become a binding constraint to any further actions. On the other hand, small users do not have the ability to make such an investment and would like to license it.
