The Importance of Protecting Your Intellectual Property

As a business owner, you may wonder why you should protect your intellectual property. The simple truth is that intellectual property, like all property, is frequently valuable. Just like we lock the doors to our house, intellectual property rights safeguard the value of your intellectual property. Specifically, intellectual property rights control who can use your intellectual property and under what terms. In this article, we will discuss the importance of protecting your intellectual property.

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property includes a huge number of different things, including both tangible and intangible creations.  

Examples of intellectual property include:

• designs;
• software;
• paintings;
• logos;
• music; and
• inventions.

The Importance of Protecting Your Intellectual Property

Protecting intellectual property is important because it provides the creator of the property control over if others can use the intellectual property and under what terms. Stronger rights mean you can prevent competitors from stealing your ideas or concepts more easily. 

Intellectual property protection provides the holder with the right of legal action to take against anyone attempting to copy or use their property without consent. This enables your business to maintain a market-leading position with your creations.

How Businesses Can Protect Intellectual Property

There are many types of ways to protect your intellectual property, and each method of protection will depend on the type of property. There are three main forms of protection:

• trade marks; 
• patents; and
• designs.

Trade Marks

Trade marks refer to logos, words, symbols, colours, or sounds that are distinctive to your business. Brands are built using consistent identifiers; therefore, trade marks are effective tools for marketing and building trust among consumers.

You can protect trade marks by registering them with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). Registering a trade mark prevents competitors from using a similar mark. This protects your business’ band from competitors exploiting your brand recognition for their benefit. 

Patents

If you have created a new invention, you may consider obtaining a patent to protect it. A patent is a legal right given to inventions in the UK that lasts for 20 years. 

You are not required to patent an invention. However, if you feel you have taken an inventive step and created something new for the public, you may wish to. This is because a patient protects your invention from using your invention in their own manufacturing or production. 

The process for applying for patent protection is quite complex. This is why you may wish to obtain advice from a solicitor with experience in patent law. 

Designs

Design rights protect the novel features of a product or article. They do not relate to any product’s function (as that is protected by patents. 

You can register a design with the IPO to obtain design rights. This means that a competitor cannot replicate the product’s visual appearance without your permission. Therefore, this type of protection is particularly useful for designers who wish to stop any other business from reproducing their design. Registered design rights last for 25 years and must be renewed every 5 years to maintain legal protection.

Further Considerations

You will have to pay for any rights you obtain through registration. However, preventing competitors from copying your work is often a worthwhile investment. Furthermore, it is often essential that you obtain adequate protection early on so your business can grow. This will prevent competitors from misappropriating your property once you establish a brand reputation. 

Key Takeaways

Intellectual Property is usually an intangible creation by individuals. It can also include tangible objects. It is important to protect your intellectual property to maintain your exclusive usage of that property and to prevent other businesses and competitors from using your property or reproducing it without your consent. The strongest intellectual property rights require you to register with a public body like the IPO and pay a fee. However, the benefit almost always outweighs the risks of a competitor using your intellectual property without your consent. 

If you need help deciding whether to register your intellectual property, 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