HOW CAN I PROTECT MY BRAND AND IDEAS?
Protecting your intellectual property makes it easier to take legal action against anyone who steals or copies it. Here are some key tips for ensuring no-one makes use of your ideas!
Understand What You Have: Identify what intellectual property you have, whether it’s patents, trademarks, copyrights, or trade secrets.
What constitutes Intellectual Property?
Unlike the products they protect, IP assets cannot be seen or touched. So, it can be difficult for businesses to appreciate their true value. Like other forms of property, you can buy, sell and license Intellectual Property.
One of the main types of intellectual property rights are Trademarks but what can be trademarked?
- Trade marks protect brands. This could be for a business name, a product, or a service. The trade mark could be made up of words, logos, or a combination of both and can even be sound or action based.
You can register your trade mark to protect your brand, for example the name of your product or service.
When you register your trade mark, you’ll be able to:
- take legal action against anyone who uses your brand without your permission, including counterfeiters
- put the ® symbol next to your brand – to show that it’s yours and warn others against using it
- sell and license your brand
What about Trade Secrets?
Trade secrets might also be an important part of your business. The law of confidentiality protects trade secrets. To keep trade secrets protected, you must establish that the information is confidential, and ensure that anyone you tell about it signs a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). If they then tell anyone about it, this is a breach of confidence and you can take legal action against them.
When employing key or sales staff ensure your trade secrets and customer base are protected by the effective use of post termination restrictions in your employment contracts.
Remember, the specific strategies you need will depend on the nature of your intellectual property and your business goals, for the purposes of this article we have concentrated on trademarks only. For further information on ensuring your ideas are protected, contact one of our team @ MyBusiness@nineteenlegal.co.uk