Protecting Your Idea
Historically, securing the intellectual property rights (exclusive ownership) to new product ideas has been the driving force in creating the world's wealthiest people.
The know-how to produce a product or a service in a manner that sets the company apart from its competitors is a proprietary advantage that must be protected for continued success.
Know-how is often the result of a significant expenditure of corporate resources and the benefit of experience through trial and error. Businesses also have “technology” in the form of customer lists, suppliers, identification of skilled employees and consultants, marketing and distribution channels. This information allows them to be competitively positioned in the marketplace.
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Inaction can have detrimental and costly consequences. Identify your commercially sensitive information. Then, implement reasonable policies and procedures to protect that information. Special consideration should be given to the use of nondisclosure agreements, employment agreements and invention notebooks. You will undoubtedly decrease the risk of losing valuable intellectual property rights and assets through inattention and apathy.
Identify your potentially patentable assets on a case-by-case basis. Consider the advantages of patent protection. Consider whether trade secret protection may be available and if so, whether it would be advantageous.
Technology adds value to a business. Product designs, trade dress, brand names make a product attractive and appealing to customers. Novel features add value. Manufacturing costs may enhance competitiveness. So protecting valuable technology should be a crucial part of the business strategy of any business.
By protecting trade secrets and patentable know – how, the owner of the technology obtains the exclusive right to prevent its unauthorized copying or imitation by others. This makes business sense as it improves the competitiveness of a business and often brings in additional revenue in one or more of the following ways:
- Strengthen your competitive position by preventing your products and technologies from being copied and imitated by competitors.
- Obtaining a fair return on investment (improving profitability) made in developing and marketing the relevant technology/product.
- Technology assets can increase the commercial value of a company and is products.
- A protected technology may also be licensed (or sold) to others for a additional revenue streams. By licensing it, you may be able to enter markets that you are otherwise unable to serve.
- Protection encourages fair competition, honest trade practices, and production of diverse products.
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Decisions on how, when and where to protect a company’s technology may have an important impact on other areas of management. It is crucial therefore to integrate issues of technology protection into the broader business strategy. For example, the type of protection, the costs, the effectiveness of protection and issues of ownership of technology, may be important considerations when deciding:
- Whether to undertake technology development in – house or to commission an outside consultant;
- The timing of the initial use of a new technology in advertising, publishing, marketing or public display in an exhibition;
- Which export markets to target;
- If, when and how to license or assign a technology to be commercially exploited by other companies in return for economic remuneration.
A proactive plan and its implementation will give your business the tools it needs to be competitive and succeed in today’s global marketplace.
There are several types of Intellectual Property.
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