IP for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Many startups and SMEs fail to consider their intellectual property in their early stages and overlook the fact that it is one of their most valuable assets. Incorporating intellectual property in your business strategy not only distinguishes you from rivals but also creates brand identity by giving your product fiscal value.
As a new business owner and fresh entrant to the world of IP, your hesitancy may often fall into the categories of "IP is too complex" and most frequently "IP is too expensive" to address.
Reading this quick editorial will give you insight into the importance of intellectual property for SMEs and how to reap its benefits with methods that are both cost-effective and impactful. It will also help you with beginning to devise an IP strategy that compliments the exclusivity of your business.
Why IP is important for SMEs?
Intellectual Property (IP) is important for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) because it helps to protect their unique creations and innovations, such as logos, brand names, and products. This protection allows SMEs to differentiate themselves from their competitors and establish their brand identity, which can lead to increased consumer recognition and loyalty. Additionally, IP can also serve as a valuable asset that can be licensed or sold, providing a source of revenue for the business. By securing their IP, SMEs can also prevent others from copying or stealing their creations, which can result in significant financial losses. Overall, IP plays a crucial role in the success and growth of SMEs in a competitive marketplace.
Identifying your Intellectual Property
As an entrepreneur, it is key that you identify how you envision your brand developing in the future. Factors to keep in mind are elements such as brand logos, slogans, and physical inventions such as prototypes or unique software codes.
How Does This Help?
By doing so, you can further assess which aspects of your IP require immediate protection and gain valuable insight on how to best position your products and services in the market. This critical evaluation will ultimately support you in leveraging your unique selling points for commercial gain.
Identifying, protecting, and maintaining your intellectual assets through a well-devised portfolio will boost the overall commercial value in the eyes of potential investors or strategic partnerships. Moreover, you will be concisely positioned to foresee and govern potential risks.
Expert Insight: As a start-up, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are your best friend. Whenever sharing or pitching an idea for a potential collaboration, it is the best (and common) practice to enforce a simple and straightforward NDA. Be wary of counterparties who refuse to sign these upon your request.
Contrary to patents and trademarks, copyright protection only applies to certain methods that aim at expressing an idea you want to emulate.
Does your Business Really Need To Register As A Trademark or Patent?
Defining your intellectual assets will help you determine what needs to be protected as a trademark or a patent. For the sake of further clarity, any sign such as a logo, word, or number that helps distinguish your brand in the market can be considered as a registrable trademark.
Registering your flagship brand as a trademark will give you the right to enforce legal action against anyone who infringes on your intellectual assets. You will also be lawfully entitled to publicly display that your brand is secured by the usage of a ’Registered TM’ symbol. This further indicates your ability as a business, to pursue legal action, if deemed necessary.
On the occasion that your business fits the criteria for patent registration, you must be aware of the complexities behind securing your IP as a patent. The patent protection system is intended to safeguard your current invention as well as individuals currently patented inventions. Being granted a patent would be considered as a privilege but it is only granted to innovations that are indeed unique and have in fact never been invented by another individual.
Your Ideas Cannot Be Copyrighted But The Expression Of Your Idea Can Be
As an individual or as a business, copyright law would be enforceable on anything you create in the context of words such as literature or content for a website; as creative assets such as original photography and imagery; or even as your tailor-made trade secret handbook or your unique code for a self-developed software.
Registering your creative expression as the copyright in your jurisdiction is usually an easy feat, but it is always best to consult with reliable copyright counsel for much-needed navigation through the requirements. Do not let the prospect of investing in legal assistance make you run in the other direction. While we understand that reliable consultancy is an expense, you will end up paying a much heftier price if you choose to fly solo on your IP journey.
How To: Erase Your Worries About IP
Being complacent toward the idea of Intellectual Property has ended many SME organizations and entrepreneurs in hot waters. Before you set foot into the remarkable word of IP, you must instinctively consider Intellectual Property as a powerful companion and not just an ambiguous chapter in the legal system.
As an aspiring SME, you are constantly implementing methods that are aimed to aid the advancement and growth of your business. These methods usually involve investing in the development of your products or services; you may even choose to undergo major rebranding by adjusting or recreating your brand’s visual elements.
As you execute these, it is highly advised that you simultaneously identify the kind of protection your IP needs.
Expert Insight: Overlooking the requirement of consistently evaluating your intellectual property’s necessities poses as a detrimental threat towards significant financial loss. Unprotecting your IP opens a wide pathway for rivals to blatantly infiltrate aspects of your key market elements and unique selling points.
When to Hire IP Expertise and What To Do When You Cannot
As an IP firm, we understand your unwillingness to seek out much-needed IP counsel. Especially when you are uninformed of the mandatory fundamentals of IP and how they would distinctively apply to your business strategy.
Expert Insight: Numerous successful entrepreneurs and tech-based startups who’ve sought out specialist counsel on their IP matters have confirmed that it was extremely valuable and has helped them crush several infringement attempts. Referring to resources like IP Coster may help clarify some misunderstandings from the get-go. As an example, a DIY approach towards complex cases such as securing a patent will probably end up in bitter loss without appropriate advocacy.
Conclusion
Given the above tip (sponsored by yours truly), we conclude by saying that it is time for you to get your head out of the proverbial sand and embrace IP as a companion. If you still feel like you are yet to afford expert IP counsel as a business owner, then, by all means, use the magnificent tool known as the world wide web to further educate yourself. Your knowledge about IP for small businesses will eventually emulate as further protection for your business – with or without expert opinion.
And while you are it, be sure to follow our blog where we are proudly listed amongst a list of the Top 100 IP Blogs. Through our narrative, we aim at providing the world with simplistic yet sophisticated insight into the pillars that come together to make up Intellectual Property.
If you are an SME or Startup and reading this article, as a gesture of further support, please get in touch with us on connect@abounaja.com to schedule a complimentary 30 minute IP consultation with one of our experts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Intellectual Property (IP) important for SMEs?
IP protects unique creations, differentiates SMEs from competitors, establishes brand identity, and can be a valuable asset for revenue generation.
How do I identify my Intellectual Property?
Identify brand elements like logos, slogans, and inventions. Evaluate what needs immediate protection to leverage unique selling points for commercial gain.
Does my business need to register as a trademark or patent?
Define intellectual assets to determine if they qualify for trademark or patent protection. Trademarks protect brand signs, while patents safeguard unique inventions.
Can ideas be copyrighted?
Ideas cannot be copyrighted, but the expression of ideas can. Copyright applies to literature, creative assets, trade secrets, and software code.
