Intellectual Property

All businesses have intellectual property (IP), regardless of their size or sector. This could be the name of your business, or copyright, designs, patents and trade marks.

Your IP is likely to be a valuable asset. Securing and protecting it could be essential to your business' future success, so it's vital to understand your rights and how the law can help you.

The Importance of Protection

IP rights are valuable assets for your business - possibly among the most important it possesses.

Your IP can:

• set your business apart from competitors;
• be sold or licensed, providing an important revenue stream;
• offer customers something new and different; and
• form an essential part of your marketing or branding.

You may be surprised at how many aspects of your business can be protected - its name and logo, designs, inventions, works of creative or intellectual effort or trade marks that distinguish your business can all be types of IP.

Intellectual Property Management

The first step to protecting and exploiting your business' IP successfully is carrying out a systematic IP audit.

To carry out an audit, look closely at your business to:

• identify where IP is used;
• find out who owns the IP rights; and
• assess the value of the IP.

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

There are four main ways in which the law provides protection for your intellectual property:

• patents;
• trade marks;
• designs; and
• copyright.