Early identification of IP

In the Intellectual Property Principles module, you will have learnt about individual intellectual property rights. However, in a business or a commercial setting, there could be more than just one IP right involved. For example, a small tech startup may be the owner of both copyright and trademark rights in its software and its logo respectively. In this example, both the software and the logo are valuable assets for the company as they help to distinguish the company’s product and services from others in the market.

But what happens when you do not protect your IP at the earliest opportunity? The biggest risk involved is losing your IP to your competitors. You may be the first one to come up with a product or service, but if you have not taken the appropriate steps to ensure that the product or service is protected, others can not only use it without your permission but can also do so without paying any compensation. 

While copyright is an automatic right, other IP rights such as patents, trademarks and designs are legally enforceable only upon successful registration. The registration is usually granted on ‘first come first serve basis’. Therefore, from a commercial standpoint, it is important to identify and protect your IP at the earliest opportunity because it: 

• can be important for acquiring protection through registration;
• enables you to extract commercial value from your IP in the form of an asset; and
• deters competitors from unauthorised use of your IP.