Protecting Intellectual Property Rights in Tampa Bay Businesses

4 Important Steps for Protecting Business Intellectual Property Rights in Florida

Assets are important for any business, and your intellectual property may be as valuable as any company inventory or equipment.

Knowing what steps to take to protect your intellectual property with trademarks and other registrations—as well as business contracts—is critical to safeguarding your business in the future.

1. Conduct an IP Audit

Start with an intellectual property audit, which is a comprehensive review of your potential IP assets. During the audit, you answer questions such as:

• What is the intellectual property? It’s important to understand the nature of the IP so you know how to best protect it. 
• Who owns the intellectual property? Sometimes, an employee, business partner, or someone else may have an ownership interest in the IP. It’s essential to determine whether your company has clear ownership of any IP assets.
• Are the assets protected? If you do own intellectual property, consider what type of protection is appropriate and whether those registrations, contracts, and other measures are already in place.

The outcome of an intellectual property audit should include the following:

• A full list of a company’s IP assets
• Current protections for those assets
• Gaps in protection that need to be fortified
• Potential IP you may want to secure or gain ownership of

2. Create a Plan for Protecting Your Intellectual Property

Once you identify gaps in your intellectual property protection, you can take steps to shore it up. Different approaches are required for different types of intellectual property.

Copyrights

Copyright can help protect any work of authorship, including written works like books and poems. Authorship in this case can also mean the creation of plays, music, computer software, films, and architectural drawings if they are original expressions. Copyright doesn’t apply to ideas or processes. You can’t copyright the idea for a machine, for example, or the way your business makes a product.
You can copyright something by filing with the United States Copyright Office.

Trademarks

Trademarks protect marks and other components associated with a brand. That can include product names, logos, taglines and slogans, and even specific colors. You must demonstrate that the component you want to trademark is specifically associated with your brand or product and that it is distinct. You can’t trademark something that is already in use and could cause confusion—for example, another beverage company couldn’t try to trademark a red that was similar to Coca-Cola’s signature color.

You can register a trademark with the state as well as with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Patents

Patents protect your rights associated with inventions, including products and processes. When you own the patent, you have control over who can make and sell the technology, product, or process that is protected.

Not all inventions are patentable, and to succeed in the patent process, you typically need a lot of documentation demonstrating that your idea is yours and unique. You file for a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Contracts

If you can’t protect potential intellectual property with copyright, trademark, or patent registration, you might consider leveraging business contracts to do so. For example, you can protect proprietary information by asking employees or business partners to sign non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements. This helps prevent someone from sharing your trade secrets with a future employer, a competitor, or the general public.

You can also use these types of legal agreements to protect non-IP information. For example, you might ask a potential employee to sign a confidentiality agreement to protect information related to your customers, business finances, or employees.

3. Be Prepared to Assert Your Intellectual Property Rights

Having someone sign a contract or registering for a trademark or copyright is a protective measure that creates a potential legal basis for asserting your intellectual property rights in the future. However, you still need to be prepared to take action to protect your IP assets. To do that, you must know when your intellectual property rights are at risk.

It can be a good idea to have a plan in place to identify potential intellectual property rights risks. You also need a plan for addressing those risks when they arise. Someone may infringe on your IP rights without meaning to, and in these cases, you might be able to send a letter asking them to cease doing so. If they don’t, however, or if the infringement is purposeful, you may need to take the matter further, including getting involved in intellectual property litigation.

4. Work With an Experienced IP Business Attorney

To that end, having an experienced business law team on your side can be helpful. An attorney can ensure you understand what type of intellectual property you have and how to protect it. They may work through obstacles in complex trademark processes or ensure paperwork for a patent application is completed correctly. A business attorney can also create contracts to protect your intellectual property and other aspects of your business.

If you want to safeguard your intellectual property or you believe your IP rights are being infringed upon and you want to work to protect them, consider talking to an experienced business lawyer today. You can contact Venerable Law at 813-680-4530 for a free consultation to find out how we can help you protect your intellectual property.