The government has recognised the importance of Intellectual Property (IP) for the future of the UK economy. Gordon Brown talked about IP in his pre-budget report in Dec 06: The future success of our creative and knowledge-based industries depends upon Britain having a robust intellectual property regime.
IP comprises a part of every business. It is the ideas, knowledge and information that belong to a business and strengthens its position in the marketplace. From developing technology and software to building brands, the investment involved in creating IP makes protecting it worthwhile in order to prevent competitors copying or taking a free ride.
Legal rights in IP are typically protected through patents, registered designs, trademarks and copyright.
For many organisations, IP is the major asset, rather than capital or tangible assets. If you look after IP well, it keeps its value. If you do not, things can go wrong, cost money and you could lose your rights altogether.
Marketing professionals play a key role in the development and promotion of products and businesses and provide the drive towards IP creation.
What, therefore, do the various components of IP do, and how are they important to your business?
Trademarks. You can protect a brand with a trademark registration, provided it is capable of differentiating the company’s products or services.
Trademark registration provides a monopoly over a name (and/or logo). This means the owner can take quick action to prevent distribution and sale of fake and lookalike products.
You can only use or register a trademark if one is not already registered for similar products. Your first step is to find out what’s already out there. Search the Trademark Register before you adopt a brand. You don’t want to discover a legal problem after launch (you will probably have read about Apple’s iPhone and their dispute with Cisco Systems, who trademarked it years before).
When you’re considering brand names, try to come up with a distinctive word or phrase that doesn’t describe your product. ‘Apple’ and ‘Xerox’ are examples of trademarks with strong legal rights, as well as high commercial value.
There are changes coming into effect in the UK later this year that will put even more responsibility on trademark owners to register and police their trademarks. Currently, the Patent Office examines each application to prevent a trademark being registered where a similar one is already in existence. Soon, it will be the trademark owners’ job.
Copyright. Artistic works, i.e. designs, drawings, stories, scripts, photographs, films, music, etc. are all protected by copyright. Any that you have created from scratch are automatically protected. Make sure that you keep good records of who created them and when, so you can show that you own the copyright if someone copies them.
If you use contractors, check that their contract says that you will own the copyright in their work, and take a formal, written assignment of copyright.
It can sometimes be difficult to be sure about ownership of copyright, and sometimes it is appropriate to carry out an audit of rights. Companies that carry out this type of audit usually find that they save money in the long-term.
Marketing professionals should be aware of the issues around ownership and use of copyright materials.
Design rights. File a registered design before launching new products. This protects the look of the product and stops competitors selling similar products, even if they haven’t actually copied yours.
You can register your product’s design up to 12 months after putting it in the marketplace in the UK, but as with all IP registration, it is best practice to do it early on. This can cover most elements of the design of a product including appearance, packaging, ad materials, web-design, etc.
Patents. Technical concepts used in your product can be protected by filing a patent application.
A patent protects the investment made in R&D costs, as it will give you the exclusive right to utilise the concept yourself or licence it for a fee. In the UK, you will only obtain a patent if your invention has never been heard of before, so it is essential that the product is kept secret until your patent application has at been filed.
Protection for your IP through patent, design and trademark registrations can provide 20 years or more of exclusivity in your market. However, there are many easy mistakes to make, some of which are impossible to correct.
