5 IPR tools every entrepreneur must be aware of

You have got a brilliant idea for business venture, you have developed a prototype of your innovation, you have tested the product and done all the market research. Your business plan, marketing plan, recruitment plan and investment plan are ready. Are you ready for launching the product? Are these steps enough for running a successful business?

What about your IP strategy, have you secured your intellectual property rights? When being busy with creating and perfecting the product and marketing often entrepreneurs forget to secure their intellectual assets. Statistics show that one of the major reasons for business failure at any stage of time is not securing their intellectual assets in proper manner and others exploiting their intellectual properties. Let’s understand what are these IPR

What is IPR?

Intellectual property rights are rights owned by a person or company to have its exclusive rights to use its own plans, ideas, brand names or other intangible assets without worrying about competition using them for at least a specific period of time. These rights can be enforced by country by lawsuit. So, what are the types of IPR?

1. Patent:

Whenever some invents or uncovers new and useful process, machine or manner of manufacture, (s)he can apply for patent. A patent gives its owner (individual /company) the right to exclude others from making, using, selling and importing an invention for specified period. Exclusivity rights differs from nation to nation based on local law. In India, patents are covered under Patent Act, 1977. A single patent can have multiple claims and patent is sanctioned based on claims being new and not claimed by any existing patents/paper in the world. A single products can have multiple patents. An Apple Iphone has more than 200 patents, where simple Gillette Mach3 has 43 granted patents.

Patents have attribute of personal property and may be sold, mortgaged, licensed or given away to others

You must know: Analyze carefully the product you’re planning to launch and apply for the patents within specified time by local law once disclosed.

2. Trademark

Any word, name, symbol or device or any combination, used or intended to be used in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods and services of the company can be protected under trademark. All the logos, banners, packaging & color combination, sound, smell etc. can also be protected under trademark. Duration of the trademark is India is 10 years. In India, trademarks are governed as per trademarks act, 1999

You must know: Do Trademark search before using any brand name/logo or and other asset if you’re not violating any existing trademark and register to your own trademark to avoid any misuse by competitors

3. Copyright

Copyright is legal right that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights to determine whether and under what condition the original artifact can be used by others. Copyright protects any artistic working including photograph, film, literary, musical and certain other types of intellectual work. In general, the life of copyright varies between 50-70 years in various countries. Copyright Act 1957 takes care of copyright in India.

4. Trade Secret

A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design or patterns that are not generally known to others and can be used by holding organization for business advantage over competitors. Duration of trade Secret is as long as they remain secret. Some of the popular example of trade secret is recipe of coca-cola, KFC etc. In India, there is no specific act for trade secrets but Indian courts have been upholding trade secret protection as treating violations as contractual breach.

5. Industrial Design

Industrial design right protects visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An ID is consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in two/three-dimensional form containing aesthetic value. The registration and protection of industrial designs in India is administered by the Designs Act , 2000 and corresponding Designs Rules , 2001 which came into force on 11th May 2001 repealing the earlier Act of 1911.

Conclusion

Only bringing excellent products to the market or marketing alone is not sufficient, It’s equally important to

protect your intellectual property and also ensure that you are not violating others’ intellectual property without their prior permission/license.
create IP protection plan and execute them

References:

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are my personal point of view and do not in any way represent that of the organization I work for.

One thought on “5 IPR tools every entrepreneur must be aware of”

Good information. A must read for anyone planning a startup.

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