Corporate and personal tax advice - International

We are two persons (one UK resident, with domicile abroad, and the other a Spanish resident), that have developed a internet software platform that sells matching services, which will be licensed to operating companies in different countries. We plan to place the IP assets (software platform, Patents, Trademarks) within a company formed in Delaware (US), mainly for simplicity and to keep the costs down. For different regions we plan to form operating (as we grow) companies (franchisee style) that develop the business, exploit the platform in their geographical area and in return pay a royalties to the Delaware which holds all the IP. As a first step in our startup phase, we have formed a UK Ltd company (of which we are also both directors) as the operating company in the UK, which we\'ll use to develop the local payment modules, engage the UK media, offer the customer service and perform PR and online marketing activities to attract UK and Northern Europe users to the platform. In exchange the UK Ltd company will pay royalties to the Delaware company.
Based on this information, we would like an analysis of the advantages, risks and alternatives of such a setup. We understand that IP Holding companies in Luxembourg, Netherlands, Cyprus or Malta would be better because they benefit of being within the EU, but maintaining such a setup would be all too expensive for us at this stage (we are unlikely to have any benefits for two years).