Startups
IP for Startup Businesses
Intellectual property is central to every startup business. It doesn’t matter what product your business makes, or what service it provides, every enterprise is regularly generating and applying a considerable amount of IP. So is your startup IP savvy?
When building your startup there are so many things to think about that intellectual property, and protecting your assets, is often overlooked. The majority of business owners are not taking steps to protect, manage and enforce their IP rights. Some are even using the intellectual property that belongs to others, without their permission to do so. Don’t wait to find out the hard way! To have to change the name of your company a few years down the line not only costs, but can cause customer confusion and a great deal of upheaval.
Types of Intellectual Property
The four main types of IP are patents, registered designs, copyright and trade marks. Whilst not every business incorporates patentable subject matter or sells patentable items, the other three types of IP apply to all business ventures. No doubt you also have trade secrets and other knowhow that you have kept underwraps. You need to be sure that you know the difference between the different types of IP, where and when to assert them, and ultimately how to ensure the best possible protection for your startup business.
We’ve helped a number of startups to secure IP protection for their business. We’ve helped them to ensure that they own copyright in their websites, media, software and other copyright works. We’ve helped them to file trade marks for their brand names. We’ve checked out the patent situation to be sure that they don’t risk infringing, and advised where to apply registered design protection to bolster their protection portfolio.
A frequently occuring mistake, for an example, is right at the beginning when choosing a name for a startup business. The first step is to check availability through Companies House and to register the name. The next step is to be sure that suitable domain names are available. But the key step that is often missing is to check the Trade Marks Registry. You need to be sure that nobody else has rights in place for the same, or a similar name, within your classes of goods and services.
We offer a number of services to help startups to protect their business ventures. You can read more about our services here. If you need some advice about how to protect your startup business, give us a call on 0203 086 8110.
We are also putting together a FREE Guide to Intellectual Property for Startups that will be available shortly. To register your interest in this guide, and to be sent a copy by email as soon as it has published, please enter your email address into the box below.
