We all know it is vitally important to protect your business’s intellectual property.
Whether it be your logo and corporate identity, processes that give you a point of difference from your competitors, or even just your portfolio of products and services, for many companies protecting your intellectual property involves more than just safeguarding a concept.
It fortifies crucial assets and knowledge which may be intrinsic to the organization’s future success.
Failure to do so can have dire consequences for your business, as it could put you at severe risk of infringement. This might include an aggressive rival actually preventing you – via legal action – from using your own name or logo. No matter how long you have been previously doing this for.
So clearly, it is better to be safe than sorry.
A question you might have though, is ‘how do I go about doing it?’. Well in this article we will attempt to answer that by highlighting 10 ways to protect your intellectual property.
Essential Ways To Protect Your Intellectual Property
Want to protect your Intellectual Property? If you follow these 10 guidelines, you will go a long way to doing so.
Consult Intellectual Property Experts
As with all aspects of business, it is always worth contacting an expert to receive the best possible advice with regards to intellectual property.
Not only will they be able to tell you specifically what parts of your business need to be protected and why, they can even do it for you.
While it is not a service that comes cheap, the advice you receive could have a much higher value over time than the dollar or pound mark your paid upfront.
Before engaging anyone just be mindful that all the money you spend on securing the services of an expert is less money for research and development, manufacturing, marketing or wages.
So, you will need to be crystal clear as to what you are safeguarding and why.
For more details on how to do that its worth clicking here.
Create Your Protection Strategy
Once you have met with the intellectual property expert you will be in a position to create your protection strategy.
This strategy needs to cover all areas of intellectual property and may include concepts, original content, inventions, technologies, trade secrets and domain names.
Having identified these areas, you will need to be especially clear as to your rights should someone infringe them.
Apply For Trademarks, Patents, And Copyrights
Once you are ready, and only once you are ready, you should apply for trademarks, patents and copyrights.
Through a process of intellectual property rights and registrations, you can protect your business and its core identity, operations and commodities in the following ways:
Copyrights
This safeguards your works of authorship, or original artistic expressions.
Licensed copyrights may well be applied to artwork, text, images, or any combination of these created by your business.
Trademarks
Trademarks relate to any brand name, logo or symbol that is used to identify the products or services of your organisation.
This could be anything from a name, text, words, emblem, signature, imagery or advertising slogan that you utilise and are synonymous with.
There are several key advantages to registering trademarks, including the ironclad protection of your brand and the peace of mind that no other organisation can imitate, clone or otherwise piggyback on the use of it.
Patents
As a rule, patents are typically used to register inventions – and more specifically knowledge, processes or products that are distinctive, innovative and not common knowledge.
To receive one in the UK, a patent examiner must be satisfied that the idea or invention must demonstrate industrial application, involve an innovative step and also be unique.
Draft Strong Non-Disclosure Agreements
To protect your intellectual property, especially when hiring and managing employees, it is crucial to have a strict and irrefutable non-disclosure agreement in place.
Again, a legal expert in intellectual property will be able to help you draft one up, and it should be applied to all contracts your company issues – including employment, licences and distribution.
If it is clearly outlined in a concise document, your employees, and third-party suppliers, would be left in no doubt as to their binding obligations.
Divide Up The Team
Another clever way of protecting your intellectual property is to divide your technical team.
Ideally this should be by geographical region, and it is a good idea to ensure that none of them has access to all the information and processes that goes in to developing, maintaining or manufacturing the product.
Segregation of duties is a basic 101 for information security, as it works on the unlikely principle that to breach it, all members of the team will have to collaborate to steal the trade secrets.
Keep On Innovating
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and this is especially true in business.
As soon as you launch your new product or service, someone else is going to come along and try and mimic it.
For this reason, you should always focus strongly on innovating. As if you stay one step ahead of the competition, they will always be playing catch up with you.
Arrange Some Evidence While Innovating
Occasionally in business, you can find yourself facing a tricky situation where a competitor has filed a patent for your work, after they have received information about it either via a leak or some other surreptitious way.
The best way to protect yourself from this situation, is to have an arsenal of evidence filed away, that will prove the invention, process or knowledge was your doing all along.
This can be achieved by keeping an evidence log that clearly documents a timeline that proves you own the intellectual property rights.
Be sure to include signed and dated copies of drafts and drawings, as well as videos and examples of prototypes and major developments in its product lifecycle.
Get Domain Names That Exactly Match Your Brand, Products Or Company
Wherever possible, you should find a domain name that is an exact match to your brand, products and company.
It can be a costly endeavour. But this is a very worthwhile way to protect your online intellectual property for trademarks and copyrights you own.
Keep Everything A Secret Until You Patent Application Has Been Approved
There is a golden rule in business that is well worth remembering. Never share an idea with anyone before you have protected it.
One of the main reasons for this is because someone else might steal it and gain approval for a patent – which therefore gives them ownership rights for it – before you have had a chance to file one.
If you have a non-disclosure agreement in place, then that will offer you protection from employees and other business associates who signed it.
But for anyone who hears about your idea that is not constricted by this, stealing it is fair game – until such time as the patent is approved. At which point you can shout it from the rooftops with total protection.
Ensure All Intellectual Property Infringers Are Punished
Having the safeguards in place is one thing. But sometimes, what really puts people off from attempting to infringe your intellectual property is the fear of the consequences of being caught.
Once you have your strategy in place, be sure to fully enforce your rights by law. Reporting all instances of violations and charging any perpetrators who are caught.
If anyone is convicted, announce it on your website, social media channels and through a press release.
This should move some way to ensure others are not tempted to follow suit.
Final Thought
At the end of the day, it is best to protect yourself in all forms of life.
You protect your house. You protect your family. So, it follows you should protect your business’s intellectual property too.
It may seem a bit of a chore to devise, and implement, a comprehensive strategy that will offer you full protection.
But once it has been set up, you can focus on the task of taking your business to the next level, with total peace of mind.
