A intellectual property (IP) portfolio is more than a valuable asset. It underpins your brand, your artistic work and any unique features of your product or service. Your portfolio is essentially key to growing your busines as it is a symbol used by the market and customers to identify your particular brand. Failing to protect this aspect of your business can create an expensive problem down the line. This article will therefore explore five methods in which you can protect your intellectual property.
These five methods to protecting your IP portfolio are the follwing:
- Conduct a trademark audit/search
- Check if you have other intellectual properties to register and protect
- Review your businesses’ online presence with regards as to how your IP is being used
- Analyse your IP enforcement protocols
- Review your procedures in protecting your confidential information
Maintaing a strong brand for your business (through these five methods of protecting your IP portfolio) is key to ensuring growth for your business. In addition to this, protecting your brand provides assurance to yourself, other stakeholders in the business and other interested parties knowing that your business has intellectual property protection as IP for many demonstrates quality and assurance with regards to the business’ identity, goods and services.
1) Conduct a Trademark audit/search
The first step to protecting your IP is to make sure your business’ branding (i.e. your trademark) is protected. You can do so by doing a trademark audit/search with your country’s respective trademark office. Start by making a list of all the different branding you use in your business; this can include logos and taglines that your business uses as well as your business name.
Once you have put all these branding elements in a list, look at each item in the list to see if they are protected by a trademark and then consider which ones that don’t have a trademark need trademark protection. You should then consider how your branding elements are being used to positively promote your business’ identity and your business’ goods/services. Once these steps are taken then you have effectively finished a trademark audit/search of your branding elements. If you are planning to sell internationally, then you may need to consider legal steps in protecting your brand overseas.
2) Check if you have other intellectual properties to register and protect
Copyright and patent protection exists for all sorts of IP your business creates. You should therefore consider these options before releasing a new product into the market as there might be IP you have that you didn’t know can be registered and protected with IP protection.
Patent protections for example exists for businesses that invent uses a new innovative process, a product with a unique design element, or a new and innovative product. This form of legal protection is usually for inventions that people make or discover. Copyright protection on the other hand protections content that a business produces such as blog posts, videos or artwork. It is automatically granted to the content creator however if you wish to register it to your country’s IP office you are also granted further legal powers to enforce copyright protection against others that use your creation. If on the other hand, you are dealing with confidential information then consider whether a non-disclosure agreement is needed to protect that information.
3) Review your businesses’ online presence with regards as to how your IP is being used
Social media handles and domain names are rising in the level of importance with other forms of intellectual properties as these handles and domains are limited. If another entity acquires the social media and domain name you were looking for. They have it until they choose to deactive the social media account or the domain name expires. You should therefore take action by googling your business to see if these spaces are taken.
With that in mind, your google search result will also inform you how your business looks to new clients. New clients often look to a business’ social media handles to get a reading of your business performance and public relations image. As such, this first impression is important on whether your brand can secure interest in your business.
In addition to this, you should also consider your business’ online footprints. Check if the footprints have consistent handles and backlinks across each platform. This consistency promotes credibility in your business and it also makes it easy for your business to be found.
In saying that, don’t forget the issue of domain names. You need to check regularly which domain names your business owns and keep track of the URLs (these are your .coms, .net and .com.us versions of your domain name) in order to prevent domain squatting. Domain squatting is a practice in which unscrupulous parties register unclaimed domain names in the hope of selling them for profit. We recommend that you register your URLs earl so you can prevent others from registering them and attempting to sell them to you later. Don’t forget, domain names also expire and need to be renewed. Don’t forget these deadlines as businesses often loose their domain names when this happen as domain squatters have been noted to swoop in when a domain name expires.
4) Analyse your IP enforcement protocols
Protecting your IP means more than registering your trademarked brand, copyrighted creations or patented inventions; your business needs to be on the lookout for activities outside your business that might be painting your business’s image in a negative light, creating confusion or weaking the business identity in some fom. Your business needs to regularly check with social media, search engine results, trademarks and patent register for any businesses that uses IP that is too similar to yours (especially businesses with similar products or services).
If you believe a party is infringing on your intellectual property that you own; then you have the legal right to bring action against them in court or through negotiations. If the infringing party is infring on your copyrighy then you can also file a complaint within your country’s IP office to have them persue the IP infringer on your behalf (as long as you have IP registered within that country) as they would be breaking copyright protection laws.
5) Review your procedures in protecting your confidential information
Last but not least, confidential information is one more IP matter to consider and it should always be protected. Ensure your business have the contracts in place that enforces confidential information secrey and protection with your employees, contractors or anyone else that your business shares sensitive confidential information with. The type of contact you need will depend if you are seeking to protect confidential information with an employee (consider Employment Agreements that have confidentiality clauses that sets out consequences for breaching these clauses) or an independant contractor (consider Independant Contractor Agreements that includes the same clauses and consequences for contractors that use the business’ IP or creates IP for a business).
Should you have any questions about your business’ IP portfolio management or any other questions, consider speaking to Partners Law Group. Let’s work together to ensure your questions are solved, your business grows and your problem is solved.
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Cover photo from DocuSign found on Unsplash.
