18 Ways To Protect Your Intellectual Property You May Not Know (Part 1)

Mark Getty – founder of Getty Images once said: “Intellectual property is the oil of the 21st century”. If only in terms of literal terms, intellectual property can be understood in many ways, intellectual property can cover many fields. Regardless of the ownership of a series, a picture, or logo, symbols that make up your brand, to the inventions or designs you have researched extensively. All of the above are intellectual property. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the official concept of intellectual property is “creations of the mind — inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce.”

From brand names and logos to the company’s products, services, and processes, all of which are intellectual properties. Intellectual property can cover a wide range of topics and include many intersecting areas. When their brands and trademarks are infringed upon, organizations will have to face losses not only on paper but also in their brand image, …

18 Ways To Protect Your Intellectual Property You May Not Know (Part 1)

There is no denying the fact that almost every company benefits from the internet. The convenience of 21st-century technology has allowed goods, services, and marketing notifications to reach a wide range of audiences at a very low cost. However, this open and highly accessible cyberspace has also increased the risk of infringement of intellectual property rights. Faced with unsecured cybersecurity and intellectual property theft, intellectual property protection has become one of the most important and essential factors for the development of society nowadays.

Effective Ways to Protect your Intellectual Property

However, despite knowing that the protection of intellectual property is extremely necessary at this time, many owners of intellectual property still do not know how the means to truly protect their intellectual property. So, how can we protect intellectual property – our spiritual child effectively? The following article will show you 18 methods that can help you protect your intellectual property that you may not know:

1. Register Copyrights, Trademarks, and Patents

Companies can protect their core R&D and management by registering for intellectual property rights. Besides, they will also be in a better bargaining position in cross-licensing and counter-arguments. Intellectual property rights combined with the registration of intellectual property will allow a business the strength to thwart competitive goods, pave the way for future market share through technological advances.

Intellectual property comes in many types. Each type has its laws and regulations and the respective owner of said type will have the ability to file a different lawsuit if violated. Some typical types of intellectual property are:

Copyright

Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects the original works of art or works with copyright. Copyright arises from the time a work is created and is expressed in a certain material form, regardless of content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.

Trademark

According to the definition of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), trademarks are “signs capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises”. Trademark is a brand name, symbol, or logo used to distinguish products or services. In particular, trademarks include names, words, signatures, text, symbols, drawings, photographs, or advertisements used to identify a group of objects, goods, and services as belonging to one owner or originating from one source.

Patent

Patents are used to register inventions. An invention is a technical solution in the form of a product or a process to solve a specific problem by applying laws of nature. The invention is protected exclusively in the form of Patents or Utility Solution Patents.

To be granted a patent, technical information about the invention must be made public through the patent application.

2. Constantly innovating

Plagiarism is a painful problem in social life. Plagiarism not only makes an individual/organization’s efforts and research and development achievements for many years fail, but it also has an even more serious consequence – making the economy stagnated. This is because everyone will just copy and paste each other. No one will bother to research anymore because even if they do, someone from the Internet will rob them of their credit with just one click. This is the reason why creativity and innovation are highly valued by many domestic and international organizations. My competitors will not be able to catch up if I continuously innovate, invent new ideas and discoveries.

Therefore, to be able to freely grow in this digital age, constant innovation is an indispensable factor in the development of corporate intellectual property and the world economy.

3. Establish proof that you are the legitimate owner in the research and development process

Although rare, not without exception, there are a few instances where a rival company has stolen a company’s business secrets. They then file the intellectual property registration application with the NOIP and declare themselves the owner of the intellectual property. To deal with such blatant thefts, owners of intellectual property need to retain evidence during the research and development process to prove they are their legitimate intellectual property owner when things have to be dissolved in court.

The evidence can be a daily or weekly development research diary, or it can also be photos, videos, dated copies, drawings, and drafts. be yourself the owner of this intellectual property. Intellectual property is one of the most important intangible assets any company can have. Therefore, each organization must design its own suitable strategy to protect its intellectual property by itself.

4. R&D teams should be separated

If feasible, technical teams should be divided into separate segments and have different workplaces. The most important thing in this strategy is to ensure that both research & development teams (or more) do not have full access to the production process. This will make it impossible for anyone to know the entire company’s trade secrets in order to avoid the case of a greedy individual stealing the company’s intellectual property. Separating teams according to each field, dividing separate tasks is a fundamental principle of information security that many successful companies and corporations in the world are currently applying.

5. Punish those who violate intellectual property rights

Maintain patent and trademark confidentiality, and enforce the intellectual property rights of owners of intellectual property by reporting intellectual property infringements and demanding from the infringing individuals/organizations a corresponding compensation.

6. Never convert to joint ownership of intellectual property rights

When you are the owner of the intellectual property, never intend to establish joint ownership with another person/entity. Having complete control over your intellectual property rights will only have benefits without harm. This is because, in the long run, co-ownership of intellectual property rights can cause confusion about who is the real owner of the intellectual property. Also, the complicated legal and procedural issues of having 2 or more intellectual property owners threaten the safety of these intellectual properties, causing damage to all parties involved.

7. Set up training to raise awareness for employees about information security

Intellectual property security awareness training will help remedy and avoid possible IP violations. Technology engineers and the science, research, and development departments can create incredibly powerful firewalls that are very hard to penetrate. However, normally, the single most important factor in protecting a company’s intellectual property is its employees. Because to hack a powerful firewall, hacker groups need a lot of effort, time, resources, …

But human beings are very persuasive creatures that often make mistakes. Months of your company’s efforts will likely be accidentally exposed by someone or some employees are bribed to ‘leak’ the information. That is why an effective IP security strategy that relies solely on firewalls and copyright while ignoring employee knowledge and perceptions about IP security is bound to fail.

Most of the leaks of confidential corporate information are caused by mistakes or weaknesses in staff capabilities. Ensuring that the employees are aware of the ways they may carelessly disclose intellectual property rights is one of the most effective ways to protect the company’s intellectual property.

8. Own an accurate domain name

If possible, owning a domain name that exactly matches the brand name used by your company or organization is one of the best intellectual property protection strategies for trademarks and copyrights. While good domain names that fit your company’s needs can be a bit expensive, the long-term benefits will outweigh the initial investment.

9. Put yourself in the shoes of the intellectual property infringer

What would you do if you need to keep track of your company’s business without knowing what to do to protect your intellectual property? Instead of spending a ton of money on upgrading every firewall your company may need, try putting yourself in the shoes of the IP intruder. How will that person do it? What intellectual property will that person focus on?

With a sense of the intruders’ mentality, the business owner can more effectively divide his investment into the respective protective measures.

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