How to Activity 1 - How to Protect Your Company's Intellectual Property

The ownership rights you have over items you make as a result of your original ideas are
known as intellectual property rights. Many business owners do not understand the need of
protecting their intellectual property through legal means until an issue arises which is what
happened to Thomas Dempsey and his creation of the recreational camper trailer. I never would
have imagined that intellectual property has to be protected in each country and that it involves
expensive fees and great amount of time to file for protection and patents. Furthermore, it scared
me how easy it was for the Chinese company to start copying Dempsey’s camper that potential
buyer thought was the original work. I will go over some ways to protect the intellectual
property.
“Many business owners don't understand the need of protecting their intellectual property
through legal means until an issue arises” (Pearson, 2019). The source of a company's
competitive edge is frequently intellectual property. According to experts, 30 to 40 percent of all
productivity increases during the course of the 20th century in the United States alone were due
to intellectual property.
Four ways intellectual property can be protected are through copyrights, trademarks,
utility patents, and trade secrets. Copyrights protect original ideas that are transformed into
physical works of art, music, literature, architecture, or performance. Ideas, facts, operational
procedures, and systems are not protected by it. Next, “utility patents protect inventions of
different kinds for 20 years. The key to a patent's protection is that the invention must be new or
novel, meaning you can't patent something that already exists” (Media, 2023). Furthermore,
words, phrases, symbols, and emblems that identify one's goods or services can all be protected
by trademarks. A trademark registration is renewed every ten years and is valid for as long as the
mark is used in commerce. As a result, trademarks rank among the most important IP protections
for companies.
Lastly, “use the appropriate tool to file for protection of your intellectual property and do
so promptly” (Pearson, 2019). In other words, the procedures for obtaining a copyright, a
trademark, and a patent are distinct; check to see what each tool protects, which one is best for
you, and how to use it to safeguard your intellectual property. It's possible that you can apply for
more than one type of insurance. Another point is to “use qualified, experienced intellectual
property attorneys to gain the proper protection” (Pearson, 2019). Before you must bring in an
attorney to fight someone who has stolen your intellectual property, you should involve them in
protecting the product of your knowledge and creativity. If you have never filed for patents,
trademarks, or copyrights before, it can be intimidating, and doing so incorrectly may result in no
protection at all.
References
Media, S. (2023, January 9). How to protect your intellectual property.
https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/how-to-protect-your-intellectual-property
Pearson. (2019). The Foundations of Entrepreneurship. Essentials of Entrepreneurship and Small
Business Management, 9th Edition.