Understanding the Legal Formalities Involved in IPR

It gets too daunting a process once you set out to start a new business as an entrepreneur. It can trap you in doubts, anxiety, and a lot of other valid concerns. Intellectual property rights are one of the most critical fields that businesses need to be mindful of. IPR helps distinguish the company from the rivals until the fundamentals for determining the correct business structure are clear. IPR provides you with the following benefits;

• Letting you sell or license it for generating an additional revenue stream.
• Help your current and prospective customers a distinctive identity of your business products and services.
• This may become a big part of marketing or branding (exclusiveness).
• Intellectual property is an asset you can use as loan protection.

Try using the IP as completely as possible, as it makes more sense to protect the business in the best way possible.

You can legally secure your IP in the following ways:

• Protecting intellectual property from any form of abuse by others.
• In the court of law, you will defend it by stating your absolute right to it.
• Ability to legally prohibit anyone without your permission to use, produce, sell, or import the products and services you sell.
• You can earn royalties by licensing them or by selling them for money.
• Using the strategic partnerships logo for creating a brand identity.

A new company can protect intellectual property in three different ways. It could be anything- a thought, an idea, an object, pictures, a procedure, logos, etc.

1. Copyrights 

For the original, artistic, or intellectual work, some protection is automatically granted to the author.

It includes lectures, works of art like music, written words, dramatic arts, paintings, sculptures, photographs, illustrations, etc.

Rights: Send to the general public copies or records of the work, either by sale or other delivery or by owning, lending, and publicly performing the work in person or using the audio transmission.

Validity: Copyright registration is not mandatory, but strongly recommended. The copyright remains valid for the author’s lifetime and up to 60 years after his death. For most countries, the owner is covered.

Read Also: 5 Best SIP Plan to Invest in India

2. Trademarks 

Trademark: This is a brand element that differentiates your goods and services from your competitors and other traders. You can opt for trademark registration that helps create a distinct identity for the company and therefore guarantees that a brand is counterfeited.

Eligible Marks are the ones that can be registered under a trademark law, which includes a logo mark or a slogan, forms, and non-conventional marks such as colors, sounds, actions, animations, holograms, etc.

Rights: It provides the exclusive right to use it and forbids anyone without permission to use the label, which is registered legally. In exchange for compensation, the owner also has a right to license, grant, and sell the name.

Validity: The trademark validity is ten years, with the registrants needing to renew it every 10 years. Also, note that it should be implemented separately in each country that needs security and has a market.

3. Patents

Patents are used to protect a new, original innovation that can be used to improve people’s lives.

Condition: Patent calls for a new and original concept. Manufacturing processes may be patented if a non-obvious step is taken.

Rights: It confers exclusively the right to exclude and exploit the patent and to derive from the patent over the patented invention.

Validity: Patent security is a territorial right and therefore, only in the Indian (or country where applied) territory it is effective. For each country where you need the trademark protection, you need to file a separate patent. A patent shall be valid for twenty years following the public domain.

It is best to consider IP as a necessary business asset beyond the definition of money-making or even branding. This is all that binds the company respect and assures a greater identity in the market and helps the business to flourish. One of the critical components of business is IP security, which forms part of the budget and business plan.

Impose Control on What You Have

Most corporations repeat this – “we couldn’t care less about the risk that anyone would replicate it, it’s just Free Promotion!”

On the one hand, it is good to know that companies are selling your services or products for nothing. But what about a copy that does not stand up to the standards that you offer? What about cheap imitations that jeopardize your hard put efforts in creating a proper brand identity? You can do ‘nothing’ in such an event and you may have an unavoidable loss with your own brand.

Your IP can help valuation

Modern businesses have no stock or employees of gigantic goods. Besides that, a substantial part of a startup’s valuation is derived primarily from its IP assets. More than 75% of a startup valuation is based on the current IP portfolio, which the investors consider.

Maintaining your Finances

If you are just starting up in a bootstrap manner and unsure of the revenue stream, then it is best to have intellectual property. You will need to tighten the pocket to make profits and first consider protecting critical aspects of businesses with IP. You do not want to start using a name that is not registered and gets sued by a bigger shark. This has happened in the past as well, which are now famous cases of trademark infringement.

End Note

On the one hand, the new company has a highly dynamic business environment, but competition and technology are at a peak. One must always remain on the verge of protecting your intellectual property against being used for other products and services below standard. The easiest and only way to build a viable and sustainable differentiator in a highly competitive market is to protect your IPR.