Summary: 

Innovation is power. It’s one of the leading causes of success for a company who relies on intellectual property to beat competitors. This property presents intangible assets such as brand symbols, product ideas, service methods and business strategies. To protect intellectual property from getting leaked, or copied, leaders structure an IP protection plan. This becomes especially important in remote work where employees and business partners reside in different territories. To secure your company’s IP rights in regions of risk, consult an IP expert who helps you plan effective, legal ways. The author presents five of these useful ways you can add in your IP portfolio and enforce your company’s ownership of the innovation it creates.

Owning IP rights is one of the success formulas in the global business-scape. By doing so companies aim to protect their valuable work and dismiss competitors from taking over their business. It then brings more confident investors for the company allowing it to grow as an unbeatable innovator. 

IP protection is a golden pot in that it also allows companies to generate revenue streams via selling their intellectual assets on demand.

How does remote bring more risk to your IP?

Employees from abroad present vulnerabilities to a company’s IP. They can use the valuable work, ideas and business secrets in their country where your intellectual property is not registered. 

This can make you lose global investors and halt your journey to become a leading global innovator. 

Fortunately, a global IP strategy can provide protection for your business from potential harm. And this can be done via building an IP portfolio in each country where potential business partners and employees reside.  

There are five methods of protecting rather five types of intellectual property. Registering these in each of your target countries, or in some cases applying for an international registration can help you avoid major IP risks.

1. Patent

Patent is an ownership right for a company’s inventions, which are products or processes that present something new. It allows an individual or a company to prevent others from making, using, distributing or selling the invention without permission of the owner. 

Thus a patent works to reward the owners. The patent owner discloses details of the invention for the general public, in the form of a document called patent application, and interested people pay the owner to rightfully utilize the invention for commercial activities.

A national patent office or a regional office grants patents to creators around the world, for a national fee, which becomes valid for the member states only. Currently, there’s no single international patent system that’s valid globally.

2. Copyright 

Copyright protects the literary and artistic property of creators, that, in contrast to inventions, doesn’t have a novel element, but the way this element is expressed is unique. Examples include recreating a product with a new outlook. The design is unique though the product is not new in itself. 

To become a copyright owner you don’t need to follow any official procedure. The work is automatically protected as soon as it exists. 

But there are ways that show a proof of creation. For example: registering with a national copyright office; depositing your work with a lawyer; and marking your work with a copyright notice.

3. Trademarks

Trademarks are IP rights that are granted for the phrases and symbols of your brand. These unique descriptors are registered in a country so that other businesses can’t copy the brand symbols. 

Trademarks are an essential component of an IP profile for any business. It’s a powerful way to create distinction between you and your competitors, and create a loyal customer base. 

To obtain a trademark protection, an application needs to be filed with a regional office of the country of your business. 

To gain international protection, there are two ways: either register a trademark in each country, or apply for a single trademark protection in multiple territories using the exclusive system by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

4. Tradesecrets 

Trade secrets is an official way to protect the information that has commercial value and shouldn’t be disclosed to the general public.  

For years, businesses have been using these to protect secret formulas, know-how and any key information that brings them competitive advantage.

A trade secret can be technical, commercial or a combination of elements. Examples include computer codes, industrial processes, advertising strategies and food recipes.

Alongside protecting confidential information, trade secrets can also become a revenue source when sold to companies. It reveals ways to bring value to their business and takes a fee in return. 

To avoid misappropriations, trade secrets are protected by confidentiality agreements and setting up other protection measures. These include:

• Non-disclosure agreement (NDA): prevents employees and business partners from disclosing trade secrets to any party not included in the agreement.

• Non-compete agreement (NCA) prevents employees, contractors and consultants from entering into competition when employment agreement ends.

• Robust security of IT infrastructure.

• Accessibility controls on documents.

5. Industrial Designs 

Industrial designs apply to ‘decorative’ aspects of a product, or an element that is linked to the product, for example its logo. They represent 3D sketches, such as an article’s body, or 2D features such as lines and colors. 

Industrial designs are most commonly covered within patent and copyright laws, and not separately. Business leaders can protect their original industrial designs using the relevant IP procedures in the prospective countries.

Conclusion: Why IP security is important?

Remote work brings more risk to the IP of your business. To protect information assets against IP infringements from potential employees and partners, leaders must approach the principles of the IP protection system. Otherwise, in its absence, a company may lose to competitors as they copy and utilize the business secrets and other intellectual property to win the customers.

Understanding types of IP protection, and registering the relevant IPs in countries of your employees and business partners can help you secure your business for the future.