What is intellectual property?
First of all, what do we mean when we talk about intellectual property? Often abbreviated to IP, intellectual property pertains to a collection of intangible assets that form part of your business. Your IP can come in the form of trademarks, designs, copyright, patents, and trade secrets. All these intangible assets are collectively known as your intellectual property. Essentially, your IP makes these intangible assets more concrete by protecting them in law and safeguarding them from being stolen.
But while having secure IP is vital to your success, it is an often overlooked or underestimated part of a business, particularly by SMEs. Hard at work growing and managing their business, a lot of companies see protecting their IP as a complex and expensive process that they tend to think can wait until a later date. But as your business and brand become more profitable, this only makes your IP all the more valuable and therefore more attractive to other businesses looking to replicate your success.
Why is your IP so important, and how can it benefit your business?
IP is the driver behind business innovation and economic growth as it allows people to profit from their inventions and ideas by giving them exclusive rights to their assets. IP rights give you the power to turn your creativity and brand into a highly valued resource that you can exploit and ensure that they are protected from those looking to profit in unethical ways.
Regardless of the sector or industry you are in, you can protect your IP in a variety of ways, but understanding and identifying your IP assets is the first step. With large corporations being somewhat notorious for stealing the innovations and ideas of smaller businesses, companies need to protect their assets from being infringed upon by competitors.
Protecting your business from theft
Countless businesses fall victim to IP theft, often at the hands of larger competitors that may have the power and capital to employ strong legal teams designed to scare off smaller businesses from taking legal action.
Seeing all your hard work and creativity being ripped off is extremely frustrating, especially when it is at the hands of a larger brand. If you do decide to fight the good fight, it can feel like a David and Goliath situation. Therefore, ensuring you understand your full IP rights and making sure that they are protected from the beginning is crucial.
A Recent Client Example
At IPTogether, we recently worked with an independent food manufacturer that ran into trouble when they discovered the packaging design of their popular meat product was being copied by a global supermarket chain. Although our client had started their family run business over 10 years ago and transformed it into a hugely successful brand in their own right, we found that they still had major gaps in their IP which left them at risk.
With our expert help we were able to ensure that the supermarket chain removed the offending packaging from their products and in the process also helped strengthen our clients IP protection so that this situation would be prevented from happening again in the future.
An IP audit is the first step to understanding what protection you have and where you may be vulnerable to copycats. Following this you can then develop a strategy on how to keep your IP protected and use it to your financial benefit.
You can find out more about how companies are cracking down on IP crime in our blog Prime Examples: Lessons from the Counterfeit Trenches.
But IP is more than just protecting your brand from thieves. It’s important that as a business, big or small, you exploit your intellectual property to your advantage.
Having a strong IP portfolio will benefit your business in a number of ways. First, it can give you a competitive edge by ensuring that your offering is unique and unlike anything else on the market. Secondly, it is essential in expanding your business and supporting your long-term business growth by ensuring that competitors do not flood the market with similar imitations. If you are looking to expand your business, a strong IP portfolio will increase the valuation of your company and make it more attractive to investors and potential buyers.
Having high-value IP assets can also open up new revenue streams for your business, such as licensing agreements, franchising, or selling your IP to other international markets. These all allow you to monetise your IP by selling your rights and royalties.
So, are you confident you know how to use your IP assets effectively?
How IPTogether can help you
At IPTogether we offer a wide variety of intellectual property services and can work collaboratively with you to undertake a full IP audit of your business. From identifying your assets and building an IP strategy, to protecting your business and helping it grow, to providing expert legal representation when someone has infringed on your rights, we are here to help.
Our team of highly experienced IP lawyers work across multiple industries and sectors to secure businesses with the protection they need to help their companies flourish and succeed. Get in touch here or call + 44 (0)330 1339847 and find out what we can do to assist.