File a Patent to Protect Your Intellectual Property
The term ‘Intellectual Property’, or it can also be called IP, means the protection for the creation of minds. Talking more specifically, it grants the owners the exclusive rights to these creations.
IP has been categorized into two sections:
- Artistic
- Industrial
Artistic Intellectual property rights are protected by copyrights and Industrial Intellectual Property rights are protected by trademarks and patents.
One of the biggest misconceptions that people have is that they think that the artistic work and the industrial or scientific patents are identical, however that is not true. Your Intellectual Property includes all the information or the alternatives that you have used for the products of your work. Here we are referring to consumer lists, business process, publications, trademarks, etc. which are used after or during the employment with the company. These elements are counted as Intellectual property and propriety information. These Intellectual properties are meant to safeguard the company assets and also to forbid exploitation by others.
The certification of these Intellectual properties is now-a-days a million dollar industry. Therefore, business holders and other individuals are expecting better ways to preserve and boost up the value of their concepts, creativity, artistic creations, imaginative creations and other kinds of Intellectual Properties. Therefore, if you are planning to start a small company or business, or if you have a company which is running properly, then you should always consider the significance of protecting your IP as a segment of the basic small business plan.
Mentioned below are some essential steps and advice for the protection of Intellectual Property in both domestic and International markets:
Outline Your IP Needs and Plan Your IP Strategy: The primary thing to be determined is to safeguard your organization and also its intellectual value which defines the type of intellectual property it owns and how the IP protection laws fit the strategies of the organization as a tool to be used in enforcing the overall strategy. It is recommended that all the business owners should classify any such new ideas, technologies or methods that can be patented.
Intellectual Property and Your Employees and Freelancers: It is recommended that all business owners should consider their employees and consultants as potential inventors and also keep their creative advice acquainted. The copyright law provides for the freelancers and independent contractors to automatically retain the copyright to their original work with a written agreement. As a result, all the business owners would be able to ensure that any confidential information is not misused.
Supervising your IP Rights: As your Intellectual property gets registered and approved by the government, you should work on renewing the records and imposing your IP rights, which means that an individual can have ample historical data which can undoubtedly set up the entitlement to those rights and also have a better chance to beat the dispute over Intellectual Property rights. If anyone has enough proof of their IP rights, government agencies will assist them in enforcing the rights as per law.
Keeping adequate information about the intellectual property rights and understanding the basics of copyrights, trademarks and patents is quite an essential thing in the global market. There are many such organizations that fail to protect their beneficial intellectual property assets. As per the government data, more than $500 billion in legitimate global sales is lost every year due to fake goods. You may not have any legal alternative against these false products, but you can definitely register your company’s name and logo as its intellectual properties in India and other countries globally.