How long do IP negotiations take?

I and my colleagues have been trying to negotiate with our institution to license our own technology for over 7 months. We're told "this will be the last iteration," but some lawyer somewhere seems to want to keep messing with it.

I was just wondering if we are unique, or whether this is par for the course for academic institutions.

I am in government and our negotiations took over a year. This was on a license after a patent had issued.

You didn't specify what type of institution you work for, but if it is a non-profit (university, government, research foundation, etc.) seven months could be blazingly fast. Acquiring a license for business purposes is a dollars-and cents negotiation, and non-profits typically aren't oriented to that. They ofen do not recognize the need for speedy execution, have no model to value a particular patent, and/or have very loosely organized systems to review and execute these types of agreements (hence the mysterious lawyers floating about in the process). Grit your teeth and press on!

To the above, additionally, there is the "I have to justify my existence." factor that the IP bureaucrats play. If you can find someone upstairs in the IP department, or get to the person that the IP department reports to and that is friendly to you somehow, they can help move it along.

Some people have gotten irate in the office a few times, or called regularly to chew on the ears of those who cause these kinds of problems, applying the principle of the squeaky wheel so that the department wants to get your thing off it's plate to get rid of you. For instance, "Hey! This thing was almost done! What is the meaning of this? Why would you do that to me?!" and then call his or her boss to complain. Bureaucrats tend to justify their existence and take the easy way (or CYA way) out.