Small Business Intellectual Property Tips

The act of protecting your company's intellectual property is closely tied to business success. It helps you in deriving competitive advantage with your company's innovative products, and possibly propel your company to market leadership. Whether you supply hand and machine tools or hospital equipments, consider the following tips to protect your intellectual property.

Take stock of your company's intellectual property – Make an assessment of your copyright works such as your company's logo, packaging, products, innovative business procedures, concepts, etc. Once you've listed your company's original assets you can go about legally protecting them.

Legally safeguard your Intellectual Property assets – File for patents, trademark and copyright protection of your intellectual property with the statuary organizations governing Intellectual Property in your country. Before filing for protection you should research the Intellectual Property databases available for any existing patents, trademarks, etc same as yours. Once the you've filed for protection it may take some time before you IP is successfully registered, so you need to be patient.

Protect your IP from your service providers – Whether you hire contractors, or manufacturers, or employees, you should have these 'outside agents' sign an agreement specifying that sharing of your work and your dealings with them doesn't automatically allow them to own your intellectual property, and that it belongs only to you. You are better off engaging a specialist lawyer to help you draft a comprehensive agreement that will protect your business' intellectual property.

Agree in writing and maintain proper records – When doing business with outside agencies prepare different types of agreement viz. confidentiality agreement, manufacturing agreement, etc, and have all parties to sign these before your proceed. Furthermore, you should also keep all records of designs, business processes, sketches, all correspondence linked to IP protected material systematically cataloged.

Prudently initiate legal proceedings against IP infringements – You should keep a tab on the happenings within your industry, and monitor other individuals and organizations who may be encroaching upon your intellectual property rights. No sooner than you find a violation should you send legal notices (Cease and Desist letters) telling them to halt their activities or brace up for legal action. Get professional legal help to draft such a notice. Additionally, you may want to negotiate with the erring party for compensating you, or giving royalties, or license fee, etc.