"just slightly" has been a difficult request to accomodate. :)
In regards to the first part, it all depends on the deal negotiated. And my response here assumes for now that the nicotine patent is NOT completely stand-alone and separate from the other patents. That it is under the umbrella of DehydraTECH as you mentioned.
Lexaria owns their various patents through ViPova (another subsidiary). They took over 100% control some time ago.
If they create another subsidiary (nicotine company), they will probably have some legal language that gives the subsidiary the right to use the nicotine patent owned by Lexaria (through ViPova) for a price. It could be a nominal dollar, or a royalty or whatever... depending on what the end purpose for the subsidiary is (the legal terms can be changed later as well). As long as Lexaria own the subsidiary themselves, it's not a big deal. Just some internal accounting.
Say that a tobacco company now wants to use the nicotine tech. Lexaria can sell them the subsidiary company, which comes with the legal deal that the nicotine company has with Lexaria. So the tobacco company purchases the nicotine company for - I'll change the number - $100M. Depending on the terms of that legal deal, the nicotine company maybe gets patent exclusively for 15 years for the $100M. Or maybe the tobacco company only buys the nicotine company for $5M... but the deal says they owe Lexaria a royalty on sales for the next 15 years.
I'm trying to simplify it, but there are so many possible options, we just have to wait to see.
In regards to "spin out" that is a term for when a company creates a separate company, no longer being controlled by the parent company. It can still have deals with Lexaria but runs on it's own. If you own 5% of Lexaria, you should theoretically get 5% of the new company.
