How Are Intellectual Property Rights Beneficial for a Business?

If you are a business in the UK, you will likely have different intangible pieces of property designed exclusively for your business. Therefore, you may be interested in obtaining intellectual property protection to protect your business from competitors. This article will discuss how intellectual property rights benefit your business in a reputational and commercial way.

Benefit of Trade Marks

Trade marks include unique slogans, words, logos that become exclusive to your business when registered. This means you will have a monopoly over the usage of your trade mark within your areas of business. There are 45 classes of trade marks, which are areas of business you can register your mark within. You can register for as many classes as you choose, but you will have to pay an additional fee for each class. Registering within all applicable classes is essential, as your trade mark will only be protected in the classes you register within.

By registering your trade mark, you are protecting your business against intellectual property infringement and therefore protecting against reputational damage. Registration with the Intellectual Property Office protects your intellectual property, and you are provided with legal recourse if a competitor uses your logo, slogan etc., without consent. 

You can have an unregistered trade mark. However, it is difficult to enforce your rights and claim ownership of the mark, which may prove less beneficial. 

Reputation and Brand

Trade marks are also beneficial for protecting your reputation and brand. Trade marks are useful brand identifiers for how consumers identify your products; therefore, they will associate that trade mark with trust. If a competitor uses your registered trade mark without your consent, you will be able to protect your reputation by enforcing your legal rights.

If you are trying to expand your business internationally, trade marks are valuable tools that are identifiable across multiple countries. Examples of such trade marks are the following:

• Nike tick;
• Mcdonald’s slogan; and
• Coca Cola logo

These trade marks are used worldwide and have assisted each business in developing its brand reputation and customer base across multiple jurisdictions. It is important to note that if you register your trade mark with the Intellectual Property Office, you will only receive protection for your trade mark within the UK. If you want to expand your trade mark registration across other jurisdictions, such as the European Union, you will need to register it separately.

Trade Mark Essentials

LegalVision’s Trade Mark Essentials Guide provides valuable information for any business looking to register or enforce a trade mark.

Download Now

Benefit of Patent Protection

You may consider patent protection if you have invented something new that:

• has taken an inventive step in the industry;
• has never entered the public domain, and 
• is applicable within the industry.

It is the most expensive form of intellectual property protection but highly beneficial for your business if you are seeking to avoid competitors from copying, manufacturing and selling your invention. Patent protection, like other forms of intellectual property protection, provides you with exclusivity over the invention, meaning that no other business can copy, sell or manufacture it without your consent. This is hugely beneficial in terms of financial success and prevents others from jeopardising your invention’s reputation by manufacturing cheaper and poorer copycat products.

Patent protection must be renewed annually and can only be successfully granted for 20 years, after which your business cannot hold the invention exclusively. This 20-year period is, however, hugely beneficial for your business as you have the monopoly for the invention for that period. If a competitor attempted to infringe your patent rights, you could hold them legally liable to pay compensation for their actions.

Benefit of Design Rights

If your business has created a new product, you can register its appearance with design rights protection through the Intellectual Property Office. In the same way as trade marks and patent protection, registering your design rights will provide you with exclusivity. Therefore, competitors cannot copy or sell the product you have designed.

Design rights are automatic but remain unregistered until you register with the Intellectual Property Office. However, they are much more difficult to enforce in their unregistered format, and you will have to prove the date you designed the product. Therefore, registering your design to maximise your legal protections is highly advisable.

Key Takeaways

As a business owner, you should know the benefits of intellectual property protection. Trademarks, for example, can become a marketing tool to expand your business into multiple jurisdictions. Patent protection is another essential method of protecting intellectual property to help prevent competitors from copying your invention. Design rights are also valuable as they protect the visual appearance of any product. Intellectual property protection offers you both commercial and reputational protection. 

If you need help with intellectual property protection, LegalVision’s 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