Protecting your intellectual property is vital to the success of one’s business. What’s your intellectual property and how should you protect it? Intellectual property consists of items that you’ve created. These items are distinctive and they supply you with an economic benefit. Explicitly, this includes inventions, designs, original works by authors and trade secrets. How you shield your intellectual property depends upon what types you have. Inventions are critical to the success of many companies. Consider a case in which your company has developed a brand new and better product. Or perhaps they develop a process that’s distinctive, useful, and non-obvious. You may want to defend the competitive advantage this gives you by obtaining a patent.
The holder of a patent can stop 3rd parties from making, using or selling your invention for a period of years. Unquestionably, this is entirely depending upon the kind of invention. It is often hard to obtain a patent. An alternative is to employ a lawyer with experience in patent law to assist you. In case your company is one wherein inventions are created on an ongoing basis, it’s extremely essential that you have a clear understanding about who owns the inventions.
Copyright Protection
Does your company own the inventions or do the employees who create the inventions own them? This could depend on the kind of work arrangement you have. You may want to make sure workers sign an agreement that any inventions created by them while working for your company belong to the company. Also consider that copyright provides protection for original works by authors. This is fixed within a tangible medium of expression that includes literary, musical, and dramatic works. Additionally, it includes photographs, audio and visual recordings, software, along with other intellectual works. The author should begin utilizing the copyright symbol instantly. This works as a method of informing others that he intends to exercise control over the production, distribution, display, or performance of the work.
Trademark Law
While it isn’t necessary to file for copyright protection, doing so will make it simpler to seek court enforcement of your copyright. Additionally, you should consult a lawyer about the advantages and drawbacks of filing. A brand protects the name of your product by preventing other businesses from selling a product under the same name. Therefore, having a distinctive and identifiable name for your product is an advantage for your company. Trademark law seeks to defend consumers from confusion or deception. This can be done by preventing other businesses from utilizing the same or a confusingly comparable name for their products. You use a service mark when what your company sells is a service, as opposed to a product.
