Part 10 Having successfully secured a patent, trade mark, design etc… for the intellectual property that you have created; the next big step for many aspiring entrepreneurs is to think about how to exploit what they have just protected. Licensing your IP is perhaps the most well known method of exploitation. Think about McDonald’s as an example. It licenses elements…
Part 9: So lets firstly define what we mean by know-how and trade secrets. A trade secret is any confidential business information which provides an organisation with a competitive edge and significantly is kept confidential (WIPO). So this could include for example customer lists, business methods, manufacturing processes and product formulas. The receipe for Coca-Cola is a classic example of…
Part 8: What is copyright? “Copyright (or author’s right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.” (World Intellectual Property Organisation – WIPO). To put it another way, copyright…
Part 7 – What is a Design? The purpose of design law is to prevent your competitors from making products which look the same or are actually identical to yours. To put it another way, design law is there to help protect the aesthetic appearance of your product. Design law can be used to protect the shape, configuration or…
Part 6: What is a trade mark? In practical terms a trade mark protects the elements of a brand (e.g. logo, company name, domain name etc…) from unauthorised use. It essentially provides a mechanism by which a company, can distinguish its goods and services from those of its competitors. Think of two identical white t-shirts but with two different…
Part 5: What is a patent? Patents protect technical innovations in how things work or to put it another way; patents protect products or or processes that provide, in general, a new way of doing something, or offer a new technical solution to a problem (World Intellectual Property Organisation). Patents are registrable intellectual property rights. What does this mean? Well,…
Part 4: The various intellectual property rights (IPRs). So once you have created your product or service you then need to consider which intellectual property right or rights to use to enable you to exploit your idea and significantly, to deter your competition from simply ‘cherry-picking’ the best bits of what you’ve worked so hard to create. In my view…
Part 3: Protecting IP. We can use the examples of J K Rowling and James Dyson to look at the protection of IP. Both of these British success stories have invested a lot of time and money in creating their respective products and naturally therefore they don’t want someone else to come along and simply reap the benefit of all…
Part 2: So lets start with defining what intellectual property is. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) defines intellectual property as ‘creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.’ Generally speaking, the aim of IP law is to create an environment in which people and organisations come up…
My aim with iPass has always been to help aspiring entrepreneurs get to grips with arguably their most valuable asset; the intellectual property (IP) underpinning their business ideas. So whilst I work towards my ultimate aim of establishing an international network of iPass Centres to support start-up communities across the world (I aim big haha!); I need to find a…