Whether you're a startup at the beginning of your journey or an established enterprise ready to scale up, protecting your unique selling proposition (USP) is an important part of your business strategy. One of the most effective ways to do this is by having an intellectual property (IP) strategy and registering your IP rights early.
Registering your IP at the outset can help prevent future issues and keep your brand, designs and innovations safe from imitation. Registered IP rights can also establish brand recognition and help you gain an advantage over your competitors. Securing your IP serves as a strong deterrent to your competitors to not infringe on your IP and provides a legal avenue to pursue should a competitor attempt to imitate your product, brand, design or innovation.
If you’re embarking on a collaborative venture and you’re bringing your IP into that collaboration, it’s very important to contractually identify who owns that background IP, and who owns any IP that is developed as part of the venture. Where ownership is ambiguous it can make commercialisation of the IP problematic, stifling the impact of the innovation.
The different types of registered IP rights
Understanding the different types of registrable IP rights is important in deciding the most suitable protection for your business.
- Trade marks are used to distinguish your goods or services from others, protecting branding elements such as your business name, logo or slogan.
- Patents provide exclusive rights for the functions or features of a device, substance, method or process that is new, inventive and useful.
- Design rights protect the overall visual appearance of new and distinctive products.
- Plant breeder's rights offer exclusive enforceable rights to produce or reproduce, sell or license plant material.
Each of these rights serve a unique purpose and offer different types of protection, so it's essential to understand which one aligns best with your business's needs. Many businesses have a portfolio of IP rights, combining different rights to protect a business’s innovations and ideas.
Learn how the founders of DesignByThem used a combination of design and trade mark protection to safeguard their IP during their commercialisation journey.
Commercialisation and IP rights
Commercialisation is a business process that involves turning your IP into a marketable product. During commercialisation, it is especially important to have registered IP rights, as often the process involves collaboration with third parties, potentially within other markets. If your IP rights aren’t registered during collaboration, there is a risk that your unique brand, product, design or idea could be imitated. Registering your IP rights early also shows potential investors that your IP is protected and that you have the exclusive rights to use or sell it.
We spoke to EMVision about how they are using their IP strategy and protection to maximise their market share and impact. Learn how they have invested in patenting their technology and methods - all to have a global impact on stroke outcomes.
Trade secrets
Trade secrets are a form of unregistered IP protection, commonly used to protect confidential business information such as recipes, processes and procedures. Unlike patents or trade marks, trade secrets are protected without registration, but through the use of commercial confidentiality/non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and employment contracts. These agreements can be enforceable for as long as the owner of the information wishes it to be kept a secret.
If you want to protect your IP using trade secrets, remember to apply commercial confidentiality in all discussions with third parties or collaborators, such as your supply chain, market research agencies, or distribution channels.
How can you make sure you’re protected?
We offer a range of tools and resources to help you identify your IP, check what can be registered and learn more about IP rights:
- Choose the right IP tool can help you determine the type of registered IP right you require
- Use the TM Checker tool to check if a trade mark can be registered or is already in use
- Our range of IP Basics Factsheets provide an overview of individual IP rights, including stories from other businesses about how they have managed their IP assets.
Early registration of IP rights is a powerful and strategic move that can secure your business's future. If you protect your unique ideas today, they may become the game-changing innovations of tomorrow.