How to protect your ideas and your brand

A while ago I noticed someone was using my photos without my prior notice. This article will be dedicated at some of the new ways in which people are attempting to take the intellectual property of their competitors. How you can protect your designs, photographs and ideas in this modern world.

Protecting your ideas!

When it comes to modern business, there is nothing more important than intellectual property. The intellectual property that you own will be the true asset that can create wealth for you. It’s even more essential to business operations than the products that you create.

Unfortunately, there are more ways than ever for competitors to steal your intellectual property. Some of these methods may occur without you ever knowing.

The Method of Stealing Intellectual Property

Once work is created and made available to the public, the chances of someone claiming the work as their own or reproducing it without giving proper credit can skyrock in today’s technologically advanced, share-friendly culture. The most effective modern thieves do not break through the window of your business and steal from you anymore.

They see the designs you’ve made for a client and like it. They use some parts of the artworks you’ve created to show their client. How much did they copy from the original artwork, your artwork?

The Internet is a good source of inspiration. We all make use of it. However, we must limit the impact it has on our final artwork.

People are able to steal your most precious items from thousands of miles away over a computer. But, there are methods to protect yourself from this kind of theft.

Protect Your Intellectual Property Legally

There are also many ways that unscrupulous business people will try to subvert the law in order to obtain your property. Because of copyright law, large businesses with money have been able to effectively take ideas from smaller companies without paying for them. However, there are definitely some ways that you can keep your ideas private so that you will never have to worry about seeing your products and services without your prior consent (and naturally a very large check in your pocket).

First, realise that copyright and intellectual property law usually protect the “first to market.” This means that if you don’t have enough money to effectively protect your property, you must keep it a secret as possible. If you’re looking to sell to a larger company, do not give them the artworks until the transaction is fully complete. Don’t share any of the private information that makes your product unique online at all. Limit the number of people to who you tell how your product is made.

As a matter of fact, the only people who should really have any kind of understanding of this are your direct investors.

Once you decide to show your work to the public, you should always use the copyright sign on your website, your artwork, your photos and other items you don’t want others to use without your prior notice.

If you want to go further in protecting your ideas or artworks you can trademark them. Trademarking your designs covers a broad range of design elements, including logos and product shape designs, yes, it’s even possible to protect sounds! These are brand marks that give a particular product or service a distinct identity or help consumers to distinguish between various brands.

Are you more the kind of copywriter, then you should definably take a look at what copyrights have to offer. Copyrighting your work gives the original creator certainly very valuable exclusive rights such as the right to reproduce work, publish work and communicate the work to the public. The legal protection of the copyright lasts for the life of the creator, plus 70 years.

All that said…

All that said, there are different ways to protect your creations and ideas. Going from the simple copyright logo on your precious designs, artworks, photos and website, till the registration of a trademark or copyright.

Want to know even more, take a look at the information and tools provided by USPTO!

One thing is for sure, if you really believe in your products or ideas, it’s definitely important to protect them.

Ready to give your brand a boost? Feel free to contact us.