Intellectual property is ubiquitous – we are surrounded by them in our daily lives. The products that we use daily are a result of the innovations, both big and small, such as variations in designs, or tweaks to make a product look and function better. These improvements will then have to be legally protected through the acquisition of IP rights to prevent others from stealing unique ideas, and helps producers to market the product and develop a loyal client base.
In today’s article, we discuss the importance of intellectual property to businesses, particularly SMEs.
So How Does Intellectual Property Affect Your Business?
Regardless of the service or product provided by your company, it is inevitable that it involves the regular use of intellectual property. As such, it should be in your interest to systematically appraise and examine the measures required for safeguarding, managing, and implementing it, in order to obtain the greatest possible results from its ownership. In case you are using using the intellectual property that belongs to others, then you should consider either purchasing it or obtaining the rights to use it by registering for a license to prevent any disputes.
Furthermore, it is highly recommended to consider protecting your trade name or trademarks. Majority of the SMEs have valuable confidential business information, from customer information to sales strategies that they may wish to safeguard. Many would have come up with innovative authentic designs, produced, or assisted in the publication, dissemination, or retailing of a copyrighted work, or some may even have invented or improvised a product or service.
In such scenarios, SMEs should consider how to best utilize the intellectual property system to their own advantage. It must be noted that intellectual property may aid your SME in almost all aspects of your business development and competitive strategy – from product development to product design, service delivery to marketing, and raising capital to exporting or expanding your business overseas through franchising or licensing.
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