Whirlwind, tumultuous may be some of the many words that describe a
start-up journey. In any start-ups, legal compliances, team building,
market research, product building, product testing, attracting investment and
key partnerships, sales and marketing plans are classically top of the mind
tasks for the founders. Amid all this activity, intellectual property most of
the time is forgotten or evoked when it is too late. It is important to remember intellectual property
is a business asset and has commercial value. Almost every startup has
intellectual property, which provides a competitive advantage, embedded within
it. Any business with a name, logo, advertisements, inventions, custom
software, customer lists or a website has intellectual property and should
understand how to protect it. It is highly recommended that start-ups companies should be proactive in
developing and protecting their intellectual property for many reasons,
including but not limiting to Protecting the competitive advantage, Leveraging as a marketing tool, Increasing the value of start-up, Attracting investors, Developing a revenue stream through
licensing, Avoid
infringement and costly lawsuits.
Typically, intellectual property is often created during a company’s
earliest stages and start-ups need to develop a specific, robust intellectual
property strategy. Generally, there are three main types of intellectual
property any start-ups may come across: patents, trademarks, copyrights.
Patents
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a
product or a process that provides, in general, a new way of doing something,
or offers a new technical solution to a problem. In order to be
patentable, the invention must fulfill certain conditions such as. The invention must be novel, that is, should not be known in the body of
existing knowledge in its technical field, called “prior art". The invention must show an inventive step which
could not be deduced or be obvious to a person with knowledge of the technical
field. Finally, its subject matter must be accepted as
"patentable" under law.
It should be remembered that not every startup business may benefit
directly by investing in building a patent portfolio, but the question of
whether to pursue patent protection requires a prompt and hard look. Although
patents are expensive and time-consuming type of intellectual property to
obtain, they also provide the best scope of protection. There are two main
aspects that Start-ups should consider with respect to patents:
Firstly, patents provide a number of benefits to start-up. For example,
a robust patent portfolio or a key patent can help attract investors, also may
serve as an entry barrier against competitors. Furthermore, the filing of a
patent application will enable the company to advertise "patent
pending" along with its product or service. Finally, patents can also
further help the finances of a business by providing an additional opportunity
to generate revenue from licensing.
The second important aspect that Start-ups should consider is avoiding
infringement of others patents, i.e., a defensive aspect. As a matter of
practice, a patent search should be conduct by all Start-ups to authenticate
that their intended industry and application is free of patents that may be used
against them. The cost of performing this search is rendered worthy by the
potential for huge savings, both in terms of litigation costs and wasted
investment in developing an infringing idea.
Trademarks
A trademark is a distinctive sign which identifies certain goods or
services as those produced or provided by a specific person or enterprise.
Typically, trademarks include words, symbols, logos, slogans or product
packaging and design that identify the source of goods or services. Trademarks
serve to build brand awareness and business goodwill. They can impart consumer
confidence in a product by association with a brand the consumer trusts.
In addition to obtaining trademark rights, just as with patents,
start-ups should be aware of whether their desired name, logo or domain name is
already in use by others. Start-ups should protect their brand early by
registering key trademarks. Registration is relatively quick and inexpensive.
Finally, as the start-up grows, it will become increasingly important to police
infringing uses of its marks. Such efforts will help ensure that the business
is not losing customers due to confusion with copycats.
Copyrights
A form of
intellectual property that protects the expression of ideas is known as
copyrights. For example, computer software code is protected by copyright.
While copyrights protect the expression of ideas, they do not protect ideas or
concepts themselves. For example, a copyright can protect a particular code of
software, but others may still create their own code for the same type of
software.
Conclusion
Intellectual
property issues may get brushed aside during the early stages of a business;
but it has to be remembered that the benefits of a diligent and intelligent IP
strategy are likely to produce serious value. Start-ups should take concert
steps in becoming aware of the types of intellectual property that can impact
their business. Further, strategically consider pursuing patent, trademark and
copyright protection as appropriate. Furthermore, Start-ups should defensively
assess the intellectual property landscape of the market of interest, and
simultaneously the awareness should be coupled with efforts to ensure that the
start-up does not infringe upon the intellectual property of others.
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