How to Protect Intellectual Property Rights

No matter whether you are an employee, an employer, a small business owner, and entrepreneur, an artist, or a corporate executive, it pays to know a few things about intellectual property- the stuff we know, think up, learn, or create, that is valuable to us or could be valuable to other people. This list is designed to give an overview of different types of intellectual property, how they can be protected, why you will want to know, and why the system works the way it does.

1. What do we mean by "Intellectual Property"?

Intellectual property is created or discovered. It includes things you write, invent, design, discover, speak, sing, sculpt, draw, learn over time, etc. Some examples of intellectual property are: a political campaign plan, a list of 10000 people who play golf, the McDonald's golden arches, the process for making Prozac, the styling for next year's Cadilacs, the recipe for Coca Cola, the design for the Pentium computer chip, and the theme music to a James Bond movie. You might create intellectual property yourself, or you might purchase it or hire someone to create it. Any way you slice it, intellectual property is something that cost someone some effort to bring into existence, and it often isn't something the creator wants to give away for free. The creation of intellectual property is a big part of what we call "progress" in the world. To protect those who take the time and the risks to create these things that move the world forward, laws have evolved to protect different kinds of intellectual property in different ways. Different forms of protection for intellectual property include patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.

2. Patents -

There are several types of patents. The two most common types of patents are utility patents and design patents. Under the present laws, most utility and design patents last 20 years from the date of application (if they issue). You don't get your patent automatically just by applying for it. There are certain "tests" your patent application must pass in order for your patent to issue. Whether your patent application passes these tests is decided by a government official called a patent examiner. This can take many exchanges between you (or your patent attorney or agent) and the patent office. Your legal patent rights to the intellectual property you are patenting don't start until your patent issues, which usually takes between six months and two years from the date of application. There are a myriad of options when pursuing patents. The short-term expenses associated with these options can range from a few hundred dollars, well up into the tens of thousands of dollars. Having a patent consultant or coach to advise you on these options can be invaluable. Often a patent consultant or coach can outline a strategy that will work well for your business, and avoid some or all of the high attorney's fees that are often associated with applying for a patent. An invention does not need to be a work of genius to be patentable. The patent system was designed to protect people's hard work and creativity. It was designed to encourage businesses to undertake new developments, even when these developments require the risky investment of time and money. The patent office is a branch of the United States Department of Commerce. Patents exist to promote the growth of technology and business, and keep our country's economy strong. Utility patents cover what many of us are used to thinking of as "inventions", such as the incandescent light bulb, the zipper, the stapler, the pop-top can, the twin-blade razor, or the process for making a drug. Utility patents can also patent an improvement to something that already exists, such as halogen light bulbs, which are an improvement over regular light bulbs. Design patents usually protect the artistic form of something functional, such as a child's sled designed to look like a caterpillar. While the sled is not a new invention, the form looking like a caterpillar may be attractive to kids, and may let you sell more sleds, thus being an innovation worthy of protection.

3. Trademarks -

Trademarks are far simpler than patents. Trademarks are used to protect intellectual property such as brand names, logos, etc. You don't have to apply to anyone to have trademark rights. Something can be your legal trademark as soon as you declare that it is (there are specific legal ways to make this declaration), provided a few conditions are met. The first condition is that no one else is using the trademark for a similar use. The second condition is that the trademark is not a descriptive phrase that people might use normally, such as "soft facial tissue". The third requirement is that you USE the trademark (for instance, by printing it on things you sell, or in your advertising literature). Printing "TM" as a superscript or in parenthesis next to the thing you are trademarking is a sufficient legal declaration to give you your rights, providing you have met the listed conditions. You may also want to register your trademark. This puts your trademark into a public record, which will show up to anyone who tries to register such a trade mark later without knowing about yours. This is a useful way of putting people on notice of your rights. Trademarks don't expire in a set time like patents, but if you stop using your trademark, you can loose your rights to it.

4. Copyrights -

Copyrights are even simpler than trademarks. You can copyright anything you write (like a book, a newspaper article, a marketing report, or a song), simply by stating (again in a specific way, and usually at the beginning or end of the material) that you reserve the copyright to the material. You can also copyright photographs, artworks, drawings, sculptures, etc. When you declare your copyright, you need to say who the copyright belongs to, and it is also customary to include the year of the copyright . A typical copyright notice might be "Copyright 1997 by Lee Weinstein, All rights Reserved". A more detailed copyright notice appears at the end of this Top Ten list.

5. Trade Secrets -

Trade secrets may appear to be even simpler than copyrights. To keep something a trade secret, you either don't tell anyone, or you require everyone who you do tell to sign a document acknowledging that the intellectual property they received is a trade secret, and promising to keep it secret. A great example of a trade secret is the recipe for Coca Cola. If the recipe were patented, then when the patent expired, everyone would have the right and the know-how to make a soda that was exactly identical (though under different names, since the name Coca Cola is trade marked). Kept as a trade secret, the recipe has been much more valuable, but keeping a secret that valuable may not be simple. Keeping patentable intellectual property as a trade secret can be risky. If someone else independently invents the invention and does patent it, the original inventor may loose the right to make his own invention! The law works this way in order to promote things being disclosed so they can eventually be used by all.

6. Offensive Rights -

Does this mean that your rights are offensive to others? Well, maybe sometimes. What this really means is that having reserved your rights with a patent, trademark, copyright, or trade secret gives you the right to go on the offensive against anyone who infringes on your rights. The bad news is, it's up to YOU to do this. There are no "Intellectual Property Police" running around looking for people who plagiarize your book, bootleg your songs, steal your customer lists, and copy your logo. You (or your attorney or representative), have to contact infringers, present your demands, negotiate, or take them to court, etc. The other bad news is that if you don't follow the rules to properly protect your intellectual property, you run the risk of loosing your rights (or, equivalently, giving them away). Having a coach to keep your awareness up in this arena can make a big difference and save a lot of headaches.

Predict Your Future. Don't use a crystal ball to make predictions of your business. By carefully assessing the historical trends
of your business enterprise, as shown in your records for the previous five decades, you can forecast for the year ahead. Your
record of earnings, your experience with the markets in which you market, and your general knowledge of the economy should allow
you to forecast a sales figure for the next calendar year.

When you have a Sales forecast figure, make up a budget demonstrating your costs as a proportion of that figure. Within the
following year, you can compare real P&L figures to your budgeted figures. Thus, your financial plan is an important tool for
determining the health of your business.

Make Timely Decisions. Without actions, predictions and decisions about the future are not worth the paper they're written on. A
decision that does not lead to action is a poor one. The pace of business demands timely in addition to informed decision making.
In case the owner-manager is to stay ahead of competition, you must move to control your destiny.

Powerful Decision making in the small business requires several things. The owner-manager should have as much accurate information
as you can. With these facts, you should determine the consequences of all feasible courses of action and the time demands. When
you have created the decision, you have set up your company so the choices you make could be transmitted into actions.

Control Your Business. To be effective, the owner-manager must be able to motivate key people to acquire the outcomes intended for
within the price and time constraints allowed. In working to achieve outcomes, the small business owner-manager has an edge over
large business. You can be flexible and fast while many large businesses need to await committee action before a decision is made.
You do not need to get permission to act. And equally important, bottlenecks to implementing new methods can receive your own
personal attention.

One of the Secrets is in deciding what things to control. Even in a small business, the owner-manager shouldn't try and be all
things to everyone. You should keep close control on individuals, products, money, and any other tools that you consider
significant to maintaining your operation pointed toward profit.

Manage Your Folks. Most companies realize that their biggest expense is labor. Yet due to the close contact with employees, some
owner-manager of small businesses don't pay enough attention to direct and indirect labor costs. They tend to consider these
prices in terms of people rather than relate them to gain with respect to dollars and cents.

Listed below Are Some Tips regarding personnel handling:

Periodically Review each position in your company. Have a quarterly look at the job. Is work being replicated? Can it be organized
so that it motivates the worker to become concerned? Can the tasks be given to another employee or employees and a position
eliminated? Can a part-time individual fill the job.

Play A modest private mental game. Imagine that you must get rid of one worker, If you needed to let one person go, who'd it be?
How can you realign the jobs to make out? You could get a true solution to the fanciful problem is potential to your financial
benefit.

Usage Compensation for a tool instead of viewing it as a essential evil. Reward quality work. Look into the potential for using
raises and bonuses as incentives for greater productivity. By way of example, can you envision bonuses like morale boosters during
seasonal slacks or alternative dull periods?

Remember There are new ways of controlling absenteeism through incentive compensation plans. By way of instance, the owner-manager
of a little company eliminated holidays and sick leave. Rather, this owner-manager gave every worker thirty days annual leave to
use as the worker saw fit. In the end of the year, the workers were paid at regular prices for the depart that they didn't use. To
make up for the yearlong pay, the employee had to establish that sick leave was taken solely for this purpose. Non-sick leave had
to be applied for in advance. Because of this, unscheduled absences and overtime pay were decreased significantly. Additionally,
employees were happier and more productive than they had been under the older system.

Control Your Inventory. Do not tie up all of your cash in stock. Utilize a perpetual inventory system for a cost control rather
than a system just for taxation purposes. Establish use patterns or purchase patterns on the materials or items which you have to
stock to keep the minimum number needed to provide your customers to preserve production. Excessive inventory, while it is
finished product or raw materials, ties up funds which could be used to better advantage, for instance, to open a new sales
territory or to buy new machinery.

Centralize your Buys and avoid duplications. Be a comparative shopper. Verify orders . Get the price and amount straight right
away.

Assess what you Receive for quality and condition. Assess bills from providers against quotations. You don't wish to be the victim
of their mistake.

You should, However, keep 1 fact in mind once you install your inventory control system. Don't invest more on the control system
than it will yield in savings.

Control Your Products. From charge of inventory to control of products is however a step. Ensure your sales people recognize the
value of promoting the products which are the most lucrative. Align your service policies along with your own markup in mind.
Arrange your goods so that low markup things need the least handling.

Control Your Cash. It is good policy to handle checks and cash as though they were perishable commodities. They are. Cash in your
protected earns no return; and it Can be stolen. Bank promptly.

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