Table of Contents
In Short
- Intellectual property (IP) protects creations of the mind, such as inventions, designs, brands, and artworks.
- Registering IP rights can provide exclusive commercial benefits and help prevent unauthorised use by others.
- Businesses should conduct regular IP audits to ensure their assets are protected and to identify potential IP opportunities.
Tips for Businesses
Identify and register your intellectual property early to safeguard your competitive edge. Conduct regular IP audits to uncover new assets and ensure ongoing protection. Consider consulting IP professionals to navigate registrations and enforce rights effectively, helping to maximise your business’s value and security.
If you own a business in the UK, you almost certainly have some intellectual property (IP) assets. Intellectual property is an intangible asset. Essentially, it is something you or one of your employees has created with their mind. This could be something written, a graphic or illustration, or the logo you have chosen for your business. This article will explain how to ensure that any intellectual property your business creates is correctly protected.
Benefits of Protecting Your IP
Protecting your IP is essential for your business’ success. IP protection provides your business with a competitive advantage. It protects any unique aspects that differentiate you from your competitors. Additionally, this preventative measure stops other companies from copying your products or services.
Protecting your IP ensures that if an element of your business is being copied, you can take legal action against anyone using your IP without consent. Similarly, having IP rights prevents any action from being taken against you, as you can show you have taken necessary steps to ensure you are not infringing on someone else’s rights.
Having IP rights in place also strengthens your business economically. IP rights for aspects of your company will set you apart from competitors, attracting more consumers and building their trust and loyalty. In addition, you can generate income by licensing your IP to other organisations.
What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property refers to inventions of the mind. There are various types of IP depending on what you want to protect.
There are five key types of intellectual property in the UK. These are:
- copyright;
- patents;
- trade marks;
- design rights; and
- trade secrets.
Copyright
Copyright protects your business’ expression of ideas. It is an automatic right for the person that created it. This might include the text you put on your website and in catalogues or how you describe your products. It also protects pictures or illustrations you create and any audio-visual material your business makes.
Copyright protection is automatic in the UK, so you do not need to complete any registration to protect your business. However, showing the copyright symbol (©) on your written materials, website, and images is a good idea. This makes it clear to others that the material belongs to you and is protected by copyright.
If you are not the creator but want to own something, you need a contract to assign this. For example, IP clauses in an employment agreement or services agreement.
Although copyright protection is automatic, you should show evidence of when you created the work if you need to enforce your legal rights. It is a good idea to note the creation date of all of your creative works.
Company Product Designs
The shape and arrangement of any three-dimensional object that you create in your business will have automatic protection for 15 years or 10 years after you first sell it. Likewise, the appearance of a product has protection for three years automatically from when the design is made public. As with copyright protection, in practice, you should prove when you created your design. One way to do this is to ensure all design drawings are signed, dated, and kept somewhere safe.
You may also be able to register your designs for more robust protection. Registering your design through the Intellectual Property Office makes it easier to take legal action if someone uses your design without permission. It also provides longer protection of up to 25 years and can help expand on which design aspects are protected.
Your Business’ Brand and Logo
A trade mark, such as your business name, logo or slogan, is any sign you use in the marketplace to brand your business. However, this is not an automatic form of protection, unlike copyright and unregistered design protection. You must apply for registration of the trade mark. This is a relatively simple process that you can complete online.
There are some things that you cannot register as a trade mark. For example, you cannot register an offensive or misleading trade mark or one that is purely descriptive or generic. Registering a trade mark solidifies and strengthens your rights in the elements of your branding and enables you to take swift action to enforce your rights against copycats.
Inventions
If your business invents products, then you can protect them with patents. A patent gives you the exclusive right to use, make, sell and licence your invention. Obtaining a patent is complicated and more expensive than other forms of IP protection. Additionally, the registration process takes time.
However, once you receive a patent, you have the exclusive right to use your invention. You can renew your patent for up to 20 years. The Intellectual Property Office also handles patent applications in the UK.
Business Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are the intellectual know-how of your business. Your business trade secrets are the processes, recipes and practices you have created to do business.
A key component in protecting your business’ trade secrets is to ensure that your employment contracts contain confidentiality clauses. You should also ask any contractors, potential investors, suppliers, resellers, visitors or anyone else who may have access to your trade secrets to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
A non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement explains what confidential information is in your business. It obliges the other party not to disclose any confidential information about your company to anyone else.
Ensuring You Protect All Your Business Assets
Now that you have an idea of the types of intellectual property in your business, it is time to take action. You should list all your business’s current intellectual property assets to ensure that they are appropriately protected.
This fact sheet outlines how your business can manage a dispute.
It is also sensible to put procedures in place to ensure that anything you create in the future is protected. To help you do this, the Intellectual Property Office has a free tool you can use.
Key Takeaways
There are different ways to protect your business’ intellectual property, depending on what you need to protect. These include automatic protections, copyright and design protection, and protections you must apply for, such as patents, trademarks, and registered design protection.
In addition, other things like your business know-how must be protected by contracts like confidentiality agreements or non-disclosure agreements. By considering all the creative output your business has, you can develop a plan to protect it appropriately.
If you need help ensuring your business’ intellectual property is appropriately protected, our experienced intellectual property lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best way to protect your logo is to apply for a trade mark. You can do this online through the Intellectual Property Office, which is a relatively straightforward application process.
In the UK, you cannot register your copyright. Instead, copyright is automatic. Your creative work gains copyright from the minute you create it, and you do not need to do anything in addition. However, it is good practice to keep proof of when you did the work and include the copyright symbol on all your creative content.
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