6 Ways To Protect Intellectual Property

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There are six ways you can protect your intellectual property. They are patents, trademarks, copyrights, non disclosure agreements, non compete agreements, and very importantly, working with people whom you can trust.

One note about this chapter. There is quite a bit of discussion about legal issues and agreements. I want to make it clear that I am not a lawyer and that in this chapter I only provide a practical high level overview of the relevant issues. If you need real legal help, please seek the advice of an attorney. Additionally, the legal tools mentioned in this chapter apply to law in United States. If you are based in a different country, please research the business law relevant in the country in which you are based.

Protect Intellectual Property With Patents

Patents are a legal tool designed to help protect your inventions. Inventions are new things that are already out there in the real world. That means you can’t patent a business idea. Things you can patent are new designs, algorithms, gadgets, widgets, even new kinds of food. But it must be a real and tangible thing. You can get a provisional patent in anticipation of something that you will invent, but for further details, please consult with an intellectual property lawyer.

Protect Intellectual Property With A Trademark

Trademarks are intended to protect intellectual property such as logos, names, titles, or slogans. For example, the Nike “Just do it” slogan is something that is protected by a trademark. That means no other company can use that slogan. The Nike name is also protected by a trademark, and no other company can use that name either. The same goes for Nike’s logo. Some trademarks apply only to particular industries and can be examined on a case by case basis. For further exploration of trademarks, please consult with an attorney.

Protect Intellectual Property With Copyright

Copyright protects written works such as books, articles, blog posts, newspaper stories, and similar types of written works.

Protect Intellectual Property With A Non Disclosure Agreement

The Non Disclosure Agreement is the most common legal tool to protect business ideas. The document can be either one-sided or two-sided. What that means is that it can either protect the person who discloses the information (one-sided), or both parties (two-sided). The parties can be individuals, businesses, or nonprofits. We will cover Non Disclosure Agreements in a little more detail in the next section of the book.

Protect Intellectual Property With A Non Compete Agreement

The Non Compete Agreement gives you protection in a few cases. It protects you from having your employees take your company secrets and going to work for your competitors. It also protects you from having your employees start their own businesses and then stealing your clients and taking those clients to the businesses that they established.

Protect Intellectual Property By Working With People Whom You Can Trust

Keep in mind, that to enforce any of the above legal tools, you actually have to litigate. That is time consuming, expensive, and not always fruitful or worthwhile. So as you start and grow your business, always try to work with people whom you can trust who have a good reputation for being honest and honorable individuals and professionals.

 

Further Business Resources

I created mobile apps which can help you make your business ideas better, and improve your business ideas with some fundamentals. Here is my iOS (iPad or iPhone) fundraising app. And here is my Android fundraising app.

For more business-starting resources, please take a look at our business planning mobile apps. Here is the iOS business plan app and here is the Android business plan app.  Additionally, here is the iOS marketing app. And here is the Android marketing app. And here are our business apps on the Kindle. And here is an article where I give the argument that our Android apps are the best business apps on Android.

And please check out and subscribe to my YouTube channel where we cover many marketing topics.

Author: Alex Genadinik

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