Why is Intellectual Property Important?
Your “intellectual property” is just the legal way of saying your “ideas.” According to a 2014 article in Forbes magazine, intangible assets comprise 80% of business’ value, on average - including intellectual property. Therefore, appropriate intellectual property protection is important because it can make up a substantial percentage of your company’s overall value. This becomes critical to an appropriate valuation of your business in the event you decide to sell your business, or commence a public offering.
In general, there are 4 categories of intellectual property (and you are likely familiar with these terms): trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets.
Trademarks typically include a business’ logos/branding, name, product names, and even the color schemes it uses. Typically, anything visual that distinguishes your business from competitors is worth taking a look at for trademark protection. If you have heard the term “service mark,” this is virtually identical to a trademark - except it is used to promote services rather than goods.
Copyrights apply to anything creative in tangible form that is an “original expression” of its creator. This includes books, poetry, music, software, photographs/art, videos, architecture, etc. For example, the contents of any brochures you hand out to customers would be copyrightable. If you are an interior decorator, your designs are most likely copyrightable.
Patents are granted by the United State Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and give the patentholder a monopoly (for a period of time) on the creation and development of an invention. There are utility patents (which apply to inventions that fall into specific categories), design patents (inventions that don’t necessarily improve an item’s function), and plant patents (seeds for reproducible plants).
Trade secrets are things such as customer lists, proprietary blends (such as the Coca-Cola recipe), any unpatented inventions, formulae, recipes, etc. Essentially, trade secrets are sensitive information that provides a company a business edge over its competition. There are very specific requirements that must be met in order for something to qualify for trade secret protection.
The category your business’ intellectual property falls in determines what type of protection it gets. Of the categories named above, not all offer unlimited protection. For example, if you follow financial market developments, you know that drug patents expire and affect the (at least perceived) value of the drug maker that patented the original formula.
Intellectual property is a complicated and constantly changing body of law that, as you can see, can have a significant impact on the value of your company. It’s best to make sure your intellectual property is adequately protected so you can prevent competitors from earning money by lazily ripping off your ideas - and enforce the law when they do.
If you want help protecting your business’ intellectual property, or need help enforcing your intellectual property rights, this office would love to help you.
Important disclaimer: Patents tend to be complicated, because they are written in the language of the industry in which the invention or design will be used. As a result, only attorneys who are licensed with the USPTO (e.g., attorneys who have a bachelor’s degree in a recognized science or engineering field and have passed the separate USPTO bar exam) should help you file your patent. Unfortunately, this office has no USPTO licensed attorneys, but can get you set up with an attorney that has an appropriate undergraduate degree depending on what is best for your invention.