Intellectual Property Definition & Why You Need to Protect It

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Kathleen Kuznicki, Patent Attorney

Kathleen Kuznicki is a patent attorney focusing on providing legal services to small and mid-sized business, giving them top-tier quality legal work without the large firm price structure. Kathleen works with businesses to protect some of their most valuable assets, their intellectual property.

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The need to protect your business’ Intellectual Property is not always obvious to many business owners.

Intellectual property is the result of human ingenuity and creativity and the law provides mechanisms through which creativity can be protected.

Intellectual property can be broken down into three parts.

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1) literary and artistic works which can be protected by copyright registration

2) product names and logos which can protected through trademark registration

3) inventions which can be protected by patents.

These forms of intellectual property are covered by federal law in the United States.

Trade secrets such as customer lists, recipes, or any other proprietary information are also considered intellectual property, but trade secrets are covered under the laws of the individual states.

Why should intellectual property be important to business owners?

It’s because intellectual property is a valuable business asset. If properly protected, these assets can be revenue generators.

For example, entities might be interested in licensing your invention, or your trademark may provide for immediate recognition of your business and all its associated good will.

Protection is usually stated as the owner’s exclusive right to use their invention, trademark, or copyrighted material, but in reality it gives owners the legal right to go after infringers in court.

Those who utilize your intellectual property without your permission are infringers. Infringers are liable for damage awards and potentially liable for punitive damages if they are found to have willfully infringed.

When you register your trademark or copyright, or when you have a patent issued, this gives the public constructive notice, which means the public is deemed to be aware of your intellectual property, and no one can claim ignorance.

Consequences of not protecting your intellectual property

If you don’t protect your intellectual property, competitors can copycat your literary or artistic expressions, your inventions, or your brand without fear of serious ramifications.

You want protection because you didn’t do all that hard work for another to capitalize! If you don’t protect your intellectual property, competitors will utilize your creations without your permission and you most likely will not be able to make them compensate you.

If, on the other hand, a competitor sues or threatens to sue you, without intellectual property protection, you have less means to defend yourself.

Intellectual property protection is both offensive and defensive. As offensive protection, you are able to assert your exclusive right to your intellectual property. You can license your intellectual property to obtain royalties, you can sell the rights to your intellectual property or as stated above, you can pursue infringers in a law suit.

As for defensive protection, protecting your intellectual property may prevent you from being sued, and if you are sued, a competitor would have to prove that your intellectual property is invalid.