The definition of INP [National Polytechnic Institutes]: Intellectual property consists of industrial property, literary, and artistic property. Industrial property’s main objectives are to protect and validate inventions, innovations, and creations.
To simplify things, intellectual property consists of:
- industrial property that covers branding and patents
- literary and artistic property: author’s rights
By protecting you intellectual property you are ensuring that nobody else, natural person or legal entity, can use your ideas without permission. The Internet allows us to effortlessly reach a wide ranging clientele, geographically speaking. But this also comes with the risk of theft. Businesses of all sizes are exposed to this risk, therefore, it is absolutely necessary that you be aware of the stakes in protecting intellectual property.
We will now take a look at the various reasons why you should protect it.
With protected intellectual property, plagiarism can prove costly
The best way to avoid being plagiarised is clearly stating that any and all plagiarism will be prosecuted. By clearly showing that you have protected your intellectual property, you are discouraging your competitors from copying your content. Plagiarism can really end up costing plagiarists very much. Recently, Samsung had to pay out 539 million dollars to Apple for a patent infringement regarding their iPhone. Match Group, the owner of the online dating app Tinder, has pursued legal action against their rival application, Bumble for patent infringement.
Protect your growing business
Intellectual property rights, whether it concerns patents, logos, or another form of intellectual property, are an investment. Therefore, transforming an invention idea into a marketable product is crucial in the developmental stage of a business. In addition, these rights have an intrinsic value. Therefore, you can either sell them, or “rent” them using licenses that are granted to other companies or professionals.
This is why the protection of intellectual property is absolutely crucial to your business. Your unique products and/or services are what will make your business successful, as well as your new acquisitions in your market. If you do not protect these ideas, your competitors can profit from your success. By stealing your ideas, they will be able to take from your part of market, slow down your business’ growth, and can lead to a loss in revenue. By securing your intellectual property, you are giving yourself legal protection and are contributing to the protection of your business’ growth.
Provide originality and avoid violating existing intellectual property rights
This also protects you against the risk of violating other business’ intellectual property rights. Actually, the moment you apply for your patent, or your brand, you should carry out in-depth research on the existing patents. You should make sure that you are not violating other business’ patents.
You should be absolutely sure that our idea does not infringe on somebody else’s inventions. If you simply just create your product without applying for a patent, you risk inadvertently copying somebody else’s ideas. This can lead to you being prosecuted and having to pay sizable damage costs, but could also tarnish your reputation, which can damage your business.
Translate your patents
A patent is a complex technical document that gives you the right to benefit exclusively from your invention. It is possible that your patent covers a vast geographic zone, which inherently includes multiple languages. In this case, you will have to get your patent translated. The translation must be precise, because it could contain technical information, and one tiny error can have serious legal and financial consequences. This is why it is strongly recommended to drop by a translation agency that specialises in patent translation.
There are real risks to not protecting your intellectual property. You risk weakening your position and missing out on the opportunity to create usage licenses for your creations.
Here at ACSTraduction, we specialise in law, and we would be delighted to assist you with your intellectual property protection procedures. Come and talk to us about your projects!