More than half a million startups emerge in the U.S everyday and 90% of them fail within 5 years; only 30% of the remaining make it beyond ten years. Modern businesses heavily rely on technology and digital resources, which is why protection of intellectual property is vital for success. Unfortunately, many of the upcoming entrepreneurs in the market are mere copycats of existing ones. Easy access to worldwide information and content via internet has facilitated copyright infringement and illicit duplication. When third parties utilize your unique ideas or creations, your business suffers in the aftermath. Competitors beat you at your game using ammunition that originally belongs to you.
What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property refers to intangible assets of your business or organization. It can refer to ideas, concepts, compositions, literature, art, illustration, design, techniques, procedures, and other inventions, which drive your business. Your intellectual property is the fruit of your intelligence, imagination, skill, and hard work, so why should anyone else benefit from it? Every business of this era requires a digital platform or presence, which is why every company needs to establish and maintain some sort of intellectual property.
How to Protect Intellectual Property?
If you have an idea, service, or product that has potential to generate substantial revenue, there are always going to be people out there who will attempt to steal it and sell it as their own. At the end of the day, the thieves will earn profits that only you deserve. Hence, the question is that how do you stop these pilfers from taking what is yours?
You can start by registering trademarks, patents, copyrights, and trade secrets to attain legal protection. Trademarks are used to protect the company’s logo, taglines, and product names, i.e. everything that defines your brand. There is no expiration date for a trademark, so you will maintain exclusive rights infinitely. Copyrights are applicable to all sorts of creative works, including music, writings, film, and software. Copyrighted material cannot be legally used by a third party for commercial purposes, thus you gain the right to sue them. Patents and trade secrets safeguard unique processes, ingredients, and methodology used by a company to produce their product.
Patents and trade secrets can be sold or distributed through licensing. This way you get to introduce your product internationally and earn royalties from the companies utilizing your creation. Apart from registering intellectual property, you can also prevent breach by avoiding third party partnerships. Moreover, you must demand employees and associates to sign a non-disclosure confidentiality contract. The IT framework of your company should be impenetrable, in order to stay safe from notorious hackers.
Benefits of Protecting Intellectual Property
Your intellectual property is a core or essential component of your branding and marketing. The uniqueness of it is what sets it apart from competing products in the market and appeals to a wide audience. You can maintain exclusive rights to manufacturing and supplying something that nobody else can provide. You can even sell or license rights to your creation for mass distribution and thereby acquire additional channels of passive income. The originality and integrity of your intellectual property grants you recognition and earns you trust. If someone has misused or abused your intellectual assets, contact Trademark & Intellectual Property Rights Lawyer today.
