Intellectual property (IP) is recognised globally as an essential asset of companies, defining a company’s worth, market share and its success to a large extent.
Failure to identify and protect IP may have a drastic negative influence on your success as a start-up company. It is for this reason that IP management is essential for the success of a company.
While you are in the midst of initiating R&D, starting up your new company or have just entered the market with your product, you should not under estimate the importance of IP in your business strategy.
Protect your product ideas:
When you have a great idea for a product or service, there will always be people who will want to duplicate your success and sell your ideas as their own.
Depending on individual circumstances, you can use patents, trademarks or copyrights – all of which cover different areas of intellectual property. These can be used to prevent competitors or anyone else from using your ideas for their own.
IP protection applies to businesses of all sizes; even huge corporations have had their ideas infringed upon and have made multi-million pound lawsuits; just look at the on-going disputes between Apple and Samsung over their smartphones.