It’s a cold hard fact that many potentially valuable inventions in history and the present day don’t exist today because of a lack of IP legal protection or it’s inventors just didn’t know they can get legal protection to begin with.
Makes you wonder what could exist today if they had legal protection for their IP.
Don’t let your inventions be a footnote in history. Consider these three important tips-of-the-trade to protect your intellectual property rights.
1) Never disclose your IP unless you have legal protection
This is a major consideration that every new business or creative entity needs to consider. Copyrights are okay as every piece of creative and original creation you create automatically belongs to you (just remember to prove it with the date that the invention was published or shared online)! Patents and trademarks are a bit difficult to provide as both forms of IP need to be submitted to a patents or trademarks examiner to review.
As such, it is very important that you do not disclose your IP before filing for a patent or trademark application. A big reason for this is that examiners look at your application and check if the application is new in terms of national or international patents/trademarks publications.
This is a big request to ask as many inventors feel inclined to publicise their ideas ought of pride for your invention (as you should!) but in doing so many lose their shot at rights to a patent or trademark application. Patents/Trademark examiners do look at national or international publications when reviewing applications and if they see your idea already publicised they will reject your application because the idea is in publication.
Publicly disclosing your trademark or patent IP can truly jeopardise your rights. If you feel strongly about disclosing your IP in some form to certain people like stakeholders, colleagues or inventors then consider non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) prior to filing a trademark or patent application. An NDA can guarantee some form of legal protection for a certain amount of time but it isn’t definite compared to trademark or patent protection.
It’s often been the case that big-tier companies also refuse to sign NDAs since they don’t want legal obligations. In addition to this, NDAs are also only enforceable between the two parties meaning if the IP somehow leaked to an unauthorized third party then that third party can often get away with it, leaving the IP creator with little means of persuing legal action against the third party.
Because of this, we suggest weighing up the commercial value of your invention and seek the advice of IP attornies. We would tell you to file your trademark/patent application as soon as possible as the filing of the application creates an international filing date that proves to examiners that this application came first before any other application with the same qualities, therefore that first application is original and belongs to the IP creator that filed that application.
2) Find out how your IP is going to make profits and how you plan to minimise expenses
Before you ever file a patent application. You also really need to consider how you plan to make revenue from your intellectual property’s idea.
If you are stuck, there are plenty of ways to gauge profit potential. You could bring the product to the market itself and see if there are any interests. If you have patent, trademark or copyright protection thanks to the granting of a trademark or patent protection then you can also use this as an opportunity to remind your competitors that you own the IP commercial rights. Don’t ever forget you have the right and the power to showcase IP your business owns.
You could also consider selling or licensing your IP to 3rd parties as well to see it’s immediate commercial value and interest from the sale/licensing agreement. This route will net you immediate revenue and you can negotiate a pretty neat royalty rate but you should always be careful who you consider to sell or license your IP to. 3rd parties vary in quality, approach and communications.
Therefore, as a general rule, if you expect your brand to make $3K or 10K amount of profits from just the idea – then you owe it to yourself to consider IP protection. Every IP you own is an extension of your business’ success formula and identity. It’s a part of the business.
3) Commercialise rapidly
If you haven’t already then you should commercialise rapidly. Once your IP is granted for your patent, trademark or copyright (remember copyright is automatically assigned to you!) then you need to make a decision whether you want to keep up with the IP’s maintenance fees which vary for each IP category.
This is a decision you need to make in consideration with how well you’ve commercialised your IP before filing the IP application and gauging the IP’s commercial value. If the filing process was long and strenous, that’s okay but if the commercial value of your IP is low then it wouldn’t make sense to continue paying for your IP’s maintenance fees. More often than not, your research into your IP’s commercial value and your strategy to commercialise your IP often dictates many organization’s approach with paying their IP’s fees.
As with any business venture we hope that your IP’s commercial value and strategy is doing really well in the market in terms of attracting interested parties, licensing agreements and other avenues for revenue. If you need help determining the IP’s value or creating an IP commercialisation strategy consider speaking to one of our attornies.
Let us know and let’s work together to create success for your brand.
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Cover photo from ibreakstock found on Shutterstock.