Why should you pay attention?
Your performance as an entrepreneur directly depends on your ideas and how you execute them. Designing new products, coming up with new services, and creating an image for your business is hard work. It is important to protect your ideas so you can reap the rewards of this hard work.
Background
The concept of intellectual property (IP) was developed in an effort to protect entrepreneurs. At first glance, intellectual property might seem to go against the idea of competition since these laws give you a monopoly on an idea. However, IP laws allow entrepreneurs to benefit from their ideas and motivate entrepreneurs to come up with new designs and ideas.
Patents
Patents are the most well-known method used by entrepreneurs to protect their ideas, designs, and products. Patents are kept and organized in a national register that can be consulted by anyone. Filing a patent can be very expensive and you need to do some extensive research to make sure there are no existing patents for the same idea or design. Get help from a law firm that specializes in how to protect your idea specific to entrepreneurs so your patents are properly filed, but it never hurts to save time and money with attorneys via ID your IP.
Copyright
You can also use copyrights to protect ideas, designs, or materials you have created. Copyrights allow you to date an idea you had. This would come in handy if you ever found yourself in a legal battle against another company that claims you stole an idea from them. Copyrights would act as proof that your idea was created on a specific date.
Trademarks
Use trademarks to protect the identity of your business. You can use trademarks to register your brand name, your logo or a design that is associated with your brand. Trademarks will prevent anyone from associating with your brand without your permission. You will be legally protected if there is an attempt to cause confusion by imitating your logo, design or name.
Non-disclosure agreements (NDA)
NDA’s are another efficient way of protecting your ideas. If you need to share confidential information with employees or partners, ask them to sign a non-disclosure agreement before they begin working with you. If properly written and signed, this document will legally bind the parties involved in case any confidential information is leaked.
You should get help from a competent team of legal professionals to determine which option is best for you.
Related Posts:
Intellectual Property Flowchart for Startups
Webinar Recap: Taking the Plunge into Entrepreneurship, How to Dive in Intelligently
Photo Credit: Tim Pierce on Flickr
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