When you develop a state-of-the-art invention or formulate a new business idea, your initial thought might be showing it off to the world. Although showcasing your success is appealing, you need to consider the best ways to protect what you have worked so hard to create.
Although standard intellectual property protection laws such as patents and copyrights can provide some security, it does not mean that your creation is 100% protected as copies can still emerge. Here are some practical ways to protect your intellectual property rights:
Hire Legal Solicitors
A legal solicitor is a lawyer who provides advice and represents clients in courts. These professionals deal with contracts, wills, conveyance, inheritance, and other business matters. In the UK, lawyers or legal solicitors typically work in any legal case as well as represent the clients in courts. Different solicitors are represented by various organizations, like the Law Society of England and Wales.
These legal experts will help you identify what types of intellectual property you can protect and create a plan to protect them and the financial gain that comes from it.
Do Not File Patents
Although it is a standard in intellectual property protection laws, it is not ideal. Filing patents will provide a recipe for how services or products can be created. Once this recipe gets published, people can still create similar products with tiny variations to not violate intellectual property rights. So it’s better not to file a patent to keep people from stealing your creation entirely.
Reinforce Protection with Strong Access Control
Store all your digital manuscripts, inventions, and ideas in a secure place protected by an identity and access management solution. According to statistics, 81 percent of breaches are due to compromised credentials. So it is best to store your intellectual property in a system that uses an adaptive authentication with risk analysis or two-factor authentication. Relying on passwords alone is not safe.
Register Your Business, Product or Domain Names
If you are planning to establish a business with your intellectual property, you can further protect your creation by registering the product, domain, or business name related to it. Registering these helps you secure the names even if you are in the planning stages. It protects your idea before other people can come up with a similar idea.
You can register product and business names in the area you operate, and requirements vary. Although for domain registration, you can register it quickly via the internet.
Create Strong Non-Disclosure Agreements
Sometimes, there is vital information about your business that you need to protect from getting into the public’s eye. For example, when you are developing a video game, but do not want the details to leak out before it is ready to launch. Let your employees and game developers sign a non-disclosure agreement to ensure intellectual property protection.
It is best if you hire a solicitor to create well-written non-disclosure agreements. These agreements can typically include sales contracts, employment agreements, and licenses.
Intellectual property is a business asset. It keeps you ahead of your competition and ensures a steady stream of revenue. This is why protecting your intellectual property and restricting others from copying, selling, or profiting from your idea are essential. Although it can be a costly process, it is worth paying for versus the risks of not staking your claim.
