What Intellectual Property is Important for Creative Businesses?

If you are a creative business in England, considering what types of intellectual property are important for you in the creative economy is worthwhile. In order to choose the best types of intellectual property that will assist with the growth and development of your business or brand, it is crucial to be aware of the best options for the creative sector. In this article, we will discuss various types of intellectual property that are extremely useful for creative businesses in terms of design, original work, branding, and innovation.

Why is Intellectual Property Important for My Creative Business?

Intellectual property is a type of intangible property that forms part of the assets of your business. As a result, intellectual property within creative industries is just as important as physical products or services and can often be even one of the more valuable assets to own. Intellectual property rights provide the owner with exclusive rights over the usage of things like: 

• logos;
• slogans;
• literary works;
• musical works; and
• product designs.

These are just a few examples of things you can protect through intellectual property rights. Notably, these rights give you the power to challenge other businesses for using your intellectual property without your consent. This is an essential tool to protect your reputation and avoid financial losses.

Intellectual property also forms an integral part of your branding. When you consider household brand names, you often think of their logo, slogan, or the ethos behind their brand, such as:

• Nike’s tick symbol;
• McDonald’s ‘M’ and slogan;
• Heinz tin colours and packaging design; and
• Apple’s logo and products.

You can protect all of the above with intellectual property rights. Additionally, these can all be robust branding tools that help create an overall image for your business and maintain consistency through advertising and marketing.

In the same way as physical property, you can sell intellectual property. Therefore, it has financial value. Often, when other businesses buy companies, it is the intellectual property that is worth the most significant amount because this is where the brand’s value truly lies. Consequently, if you are a creative brand, you should commit to protecting several intellectual property types that fit your business needs.

Copyright

The first type of intellectual property worth mentioning for creative businesses is copyright, as it is a type of intellectual property that is formed automatically upon creating a creative piece of work. This includes:

• dramatic works;
• literary and non-literary works;
• musical works;
• film recordings;
• Illustrations; and
• photography.

You can use the © symbol to mark your work to show others that copyright protects it. Therefore, outside parties cannot use it without your permission. Copyrighted works are not registered with the Intellectual Property Office, so you do not need to register to receive protection.

You could also consider including a brief statement alongside the © symbol to timestamp your work and notify potential copycats that you are aware of your rights and will enforce them if needed.

Copyright protection typically lasts for its author’s lifetime, plus 70 years.

Design Rights

Design rights protect the visual appearance of your products and their design elements. You can register your design rights to maximise and receive immediate intellectual property protection over your designs. This enables you to use your legal rights to challenge any competitor that attempts to copy, manufacture, or sell your designs without consent.

You can choose to register part of your design or its entirety. Regardless, design rights can protect things such as:

• colours;
• shapes;
• configuration;
• lines;
• texture; and
• materials.

You can interlink a product’s design with your creative business’ branding, which is crucial to your economic growth within the creative sectors.

Legal rights come with registration, which enables you to challenge anyone who attempts to infringe on your intellectual property rights. You can also choose to license your design rights to others. Doing this does not erase your ownership but, instead, allows third parties to use your designs in specific ways. It would be best to draw this up in a detailed contractual agreement.

Trade Marks

Trade marks take numerous forms and can range from:

• logos;
• symbols;
• words;
• phrases;
• colours; and
• sounds.

They are creative by nature, and to successfully register your trade mark with the Intellectual Property Office, you must demonstrate that your trade mark is distinctive and non-generic. As a result, creative trade marks can help to distinguish your business and brand from competitors. 

As a creative business, you will have much scope to register a trade mark for various elements of your business. The most apparent trade mark choice is usually your business name and logo. While they can exist in an unregistered form, unregistered trade marks receive less protection. Therefore, it is generally advised to register any mark to obtain more substantial rights over your branding.

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Registering a trade mark is usually straightforward. It ensures your branding is secure, and you can trade using a particular name.

Patents

While registering a patent can be more complex and expensive than registering other forms of registrable IP, if you have created a new technical invention, you may want to investigate this possibility. 

A patent gives you the exclusive right to make, use, sell, and import your patented invention and the right to prevent others from doing so.

Typically, unique products (but not newly invented) and business models will not be capable of being the subject of patents, especially if they have been released on the market already. In this instance, you should consider what other aspects of your business’s intellectual property can be protected, such as strong trade mark protection for your branding.

Key Takeaways

Creative businesses in England have several options for protecting their intellectual property. Intellectual property rights are essential for your business because they facilitate strong branding and increase your advertising and marketing potential. Accordingly, intellectual property can vary in format. However, the four main types that could be relevant for creative businesses are copyright, design rights, trade marks, and patents.

If you need help or advice around registering your trade mark, or enforcing your rights under copyright, 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.

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