IP also can be helpful in marketing. The company can tout its patent and trademark protection by appropriately marking its products and by noting its protection in its promotional literature. IP should be a very early consideration for a start-up company. This is particularly true for high-technology companies where significant patent protection may be available for innovation that has occurred. For both patents and trademarks, filing for protection early has a number of advantages, particularly where there may be activity in the same or a similar area by competitors or researchers.
Patents have the following filing deadlines, requiring early attention.
In the U.S., a patent application must be filed within one year of the first publication or offer for sale of the invention. In most foreign countries, a patent application must be filed before any sale or public disclosure. IP protection also should be addressed before, or at least simultaneously with, attempting to secure financing, as some VCs will, and should, require it. Finally, start-up companies should seek the consult of an IP attorney early because the attorney can advise the company on a strategy for obtaining IP protection, as well as on how to proceed to minimize the risk of infringing others' IP assets. Specifically, IP counsel may advise the company to avoid using a certain name or product or service feature to respectively avoid infringing a trademark or patent right of another.