5 Considerations To Make Before Protecting Your Intellectual Property For Your Small Business

Intellectual Property

Companies are able to progress and grow in stature because of the services and products they create, the strong identity of their brand and their unique innovations. Due to creative ideas flowing which will help them to stand out from the rest of the competitors in the market, the call for using intellectual property is ever growing. If you’re the type of business which may require intellectual property, there are several considerations to make before having implemented in your business. Here are 5 to be aware of:

Decide on a unique name that can be easily used

When creative juices are flowing, every name that you come up with can seem like a great idea. Unfortunately, legalities can restrict what you use, but it’s there for a reason and should be something to be wary of. Firstly, you need to make sure that the name doesn’t interfere with other current trademarks. Consider using commercial litigation solicitors Manchester to research around current intellectual property and what can be used. Next, choose a name that can be easily protected by IP. Certain names may not be protected in certain countries.

Use trademark(s) to protect your name

In order to make a good name great, it can be most effective when you have the rights to that name for your business. Unlike company registration, trademark can provide you with reassurance that whichever country your name lies, it will be protected against other businesses.

Decide whether to patent or not

The process of patenting can come with it’s pros and cons. What is for certain is that this decision should be made before the product or service is made public. For example, if your idea is displayed at a competition or expo, this can cause loss of patentability moving forward. If you’re unsure of what to do, corporate solicitors Manchester-based can help make your decision.There is the possibility of simply keeping your invention secret, which means registration isn’t required and protection isn’t limited. However, trade secrets aren’t protected in reverse engineering.

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Remember to include intellectual property in contracts

In some cases, businesses aren’t covered for inventions to automatically transfer from the creator or employee. For example, if an employee made a logo for the business, technically the property of that is owned by the employee unless stated otherwise. To make sure this doesn’t occur, include IP clauses within your employment and procurement contracts.

Transfer all intellectual property to the company

There may have been instances early on with your business where creations and inventions had been created before the company was incorporated. This means that whatever was created in-house would be owned by the creator and if they chose to leave or split from the company, they’re allowed to take that property with them. This could be extremely detrimental to your business. To prevent this from happening, transfer all intellectual property to your business once confirmed.