4 reasons to protect your Intellectual Property | For Microsoft Partners

Your company’s intellectual property (IP) is a highly valuable part your business. You invest a lot in the great minds you employ to develop these assets, and their creations (quite literally, the intangible assets of their minds) can hold significant value for years to come.

Once open to the public, Intellectual Property (IP) can very easily be copied, which is why rights associated with intellectual property were created. There is no obligation take your company’s IP into consideration, but it could save you a significant amount of time and money in the future. View our IP Assignment Agreements dedicated page to learn more.

Unfortunately, intellectual property is an area that is often overlooked until it is copied. Many start-ups and budget-conscious companies put off protecting their IP in an attempt to cut costs, only to regret this deeply later down the line when faced with considerable expense of stolen IP or damage to their business’s reputation.

If you’re still on the fence, here are 4 reasons why you should get started on protecting your IP:

Protect exclusive rights

The protection of your Intellectual Property will also give you exclusive rights (in the jurisdiction that it is registered in) to your particular asset, such as your brand name, invention, design etc. This means that others cannot benefit financially from your reputation or damage your reputation by producing substandard counterfeits of the original. This can give your business a competitive edge in the market.

Prevent others from using your branding and goodwill

Creating and maintaining a strong brand is crucial and costly for most businesses, so taking steps to protect your brand is a no-brainer. Don’t wait to get started, a common mistake many start-ups and SME businesses make it to forget about IP protection during their early stages while they are establishing their branding and goodwill. If you are successful in registering your design, invention or trademark to protect these unique identifiers of your business, you will be proactively taking steps to protect the distinctive personality of your company and warn other people from using them. If anyone attempts to use your registered IP they will be “infringing” your rights and you can make a claim for IP infringement. This means that you can defend your sole rights to use your IP in court and potentially receive damages or an account of profits from the infringing party.

Raise money by licensing or selling

Protecting your IP can create a profit-making asset for your business. For example, Rovio, the company that owns “Angry Birds” earns over 15% of their total revenue from licensing the game.

When you own the IP rights to a creation, you can use it however you wish to, or transfer the right to use it to others. You could create a revenue stream for your business by selling the rights to it or earn royalties by licensing it.

At Law 365, we are always on hand to discuss IP with our clients and how they can take full advantage of it. For example, don’t forget your IP rights can also be highly regarded by financial institutions and can even be offered as security for a loan in some cases.

Add value to your business

Obtaining IP rights can be fundamental to securing the commercial success of a business seeking to stay ahead of their field. IP rights can actively increase your businesses’ market share and ensure that your customers remain loyal to your brand. The name of your company, the logo and your products or services are part of the branding that sets your business apart from its competitors. It is therefore in the best interest of a company to ensure that it makes use of its intangible assets by protecting them and using them.

Different types of creations can be protected in different ways, and our Commercial Team at Law 365 are always on hand to advise our clients on how to effectively protect their IP. We aim to help our clients at every stage of their development to help them grow and continue to innovate in the tech industry. If you would like to find out more about how to protect your IP, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. The Intellectual Property Office website also has a huge amount information that you may find useful.