If you want your business to be successful, protecting your intellectual property is of the utmost importance. Check out the following four ways to protect your brand so that you can have peace of mind.
Include an IP Clause in a Terms and Conditions Agreement
One of the top ways to protect your intellectual property is to create a legal terms-and-conditions statement. It will outline the rules and guidelines that users must abide by if they are going to do business with your company. A terms-and-conditions agreement gives you legal backing should you experience problems with IP theft or other abuses. Your agreement should pop up when a visitor to your website clicks on a specific page, or it should be in a conspicuous location on your website or app. Amongst the agreement, you should specifically include an IP clause. It will state that your company owns all of the intellectual property and that you have the proprietary rights to that material. If someone steals your intellectual property, you’re then in an excellent position to begin legal proceedings. An intellectual property and litigation lawyer can help with copyright infringement and other IP theft issues.
Trademark Your Brand
Copyright laws cover a lot of the written content on your website or app, but that doesn’t mean every component of your brand will be protected through copyright protections alone. One of the best ways to protect your brand is to register for a trademark. That can protect your brand name, logo, slogan, and designs. Also, once you have a registered trademark, you get to use the ® symbol on your IP assets to ensure everyone knows it cannot be stolen. A registered trademark symbol also helps your customers to trust your brand and see your company as reputable, so there are many advantages of trademarking your brand.
Make Your Brand Difficult to Copy
Generic IP can be much more easily stolen and replicated than brands that link to a source. For instance, if your company sells water guns, you could adopt a brand name like Super Squirt Water Guns. Such a name is easily ripped off because it uses generic and common words. By adding a source to your brand, such as a name, location, or date, you make your brand much more specific and more difficult to be stolen. For instance, you could name your brand Wet Wilbur’s Super Squirt Water Guns, or include a date like “Established in 1999.”
Stay Vigilant
You can use every type of protection possible to ensure your intellectual property is not stolen. But if you don’t stay vigilant, you’ll have wasted a lot of time and money. It’s vital you continually monitor your competitors for potential theft. If your IP is stolen and you don’t know about it, you could soon see a drop in your customer base and revenue. It can be challenging to find the time to monitor potential IP thefts constantly, though. Thankfully, there is software available that searches the internet to find any potential matches to your brand and intellectual property.
