Protecting your intellectual property is crucial to the success of your business. Intellectual property consists of items that you have created that are unique and that provide you with an economic benefit. Intellectual property includes inventions, designs, original works of authorship and trade secrets. How you protect your intellectual property depends on what types of intellectual property you have.
Inventions are crucial to the success of many businesses.
If your business has developed a new and better product or process that is unique, useful, and non-obvious you will want to protect the competitive advantage this gives you by obtaining a patent. The holder of a patent can stop third parties from making, using or selling his invention for a period of years depending on the type of invention. Obtaining a patent can be complicated, so you may want to hire an attorney with experience in patent law to help you. If your business is one in which inventions are created on a continuing basis, it is very important that you have a clear understanding about who owns the inventions. This can depend on the type of work arrangement you have.