protecting your intellectual property - patents or trademarks
DESCRIPTION
Peer Watterson of Withers and Rogers talks through why protecting IP is so important and then lays out options and their particular strengths and weaknesses.TRANSCRIPT
Protecting your Intellectual Property
Peer Watterson
including Patents and Trade Marks
•Why is IP important?
•Patents – protecting inventions
•Trade marks – protecting brands
•Copyright
•Other IP – trade secrets, know how, reputation
•What you can do now
Protecting your IP
Why is IP important?
• Intellectual property can provide a competitive edge:– Patents and trademarks give you a monopoly
– Provide a system for rewarding development of ideas and non-corporeal investments
• Much of today’s business is involved in non-material products and services
Patents
• Available for ideas which are:
• New
• Not obvious
• In certain business essential:
• Telecoms
• Pharma
• In 2008 146,561 patents filedat the European Patent Office
Trade Marks
• Trade marks: a word, phrase or sign which distinguishes goods/services from those of a competitor
Copyright
• Copyright protects works from being copied.
• Important for more creative industries:
• Books
• Plays
• Movies
• Computer software code
• Very effective if protected with licensing agreements
Other Intellectual Property
• Registered/unregistered design
Protects the shape or appearance
• Trade secrets
Protect customer lists or other compilations
Don’t have to patent, consider keeping secret
Use agreements to protect
What can you do know?