Intellectual Property for Business Owners: A Protective Checklist

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You have created something valuable if you have intellectual property. Intellectual property refers to a work or invention that is the result of creative ideas. It also includes confidential information.

Do you know how to protect your rights to your intellectual property? It is crucial that your business has an intellectual property strategy (IP strategy) as part of its business plan. An IP protection strategy sets the framework for protecting your intangible assets. Our Maryland business attorney at Thienel Law provides this proactive intellectual property checklist for business owners to help them avoid the most common mistakes startups and seasoned businesses make when creating an IP protection plan.

1. Understand Different Types of Intellectual Property (IP)

First, you need to identify which types of IP are relevant to your business. Most intellectual property falls into one of four categories: patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. It is essential that you learn the basics of each type of IP to understand what can be protected. The type of IP asset impacts your intellectual property rights and the steps you must take to protect intellectual property.

2. Conduct an IP Audit

Before you can take steps to protect intellectual property, you must know what you have to protect. An IP audit identifies your existing and potential IP assets and original ideas.

Examples of the types of intellectual property you may need to protect include, but are not limited to:

• Logos
• Product designs
• Innovative processes
• Computer programs
• Inventions
• Brand
• Proprietary knowledge
• Trade secrets
• Digital assets
• Creative works
• Utility patents
• Literary and artistic works
• Domain names
• Other business and creative ideas

Once you identify IP assets, determine the status of each IP asset and create an IP checklist. It is protected, pending, or unprotected. Once you know what IP assets need legal protection and their current status, you can move forward with the next step—protecting your IP assets with trademarks, patents, copyrights, and legal agreements.

3. Protect Your Trademarks

A trademark is a phrase, symbol, or insignia that is recognizable as representing a product or service. It separates the product or service from the competition.

Perform a trademark search to ensure your brand name or logo isn’t already in use. Then, apply for trademark registration to protect brand identity. However, obtaining a trademark is the first step in protecting your intellectual property. You should also plan to monitor and enforce your trademark rights to prevent unauthorized use.

4. Secure Your Copyrights

A copyright provides an author or creator of original material the exclusive right to use, duplicate, or copy their material. Your IP asset audit should have identified all original works that need legal protection. Copyright protection also gives you the exclusive right to let someone use your material through a licensing agreement.

Register copyrights through the U.S. Copyright Office. Have a procedure that ensures you mark all copyrighted materials with the copyright symbol and the year of first publication to enhance your legal protection.

5. Apply for Patents

A patent bestows an inventor the exclusive legal right to use or manufacture their invention for a set period. Patents are granted through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The first step is to evaluate which inventions and innovations are eligible for patent protection.

Then, file for provisional or non-provisional patents. The patent process is more complicated and requires more technical and legal expertise than copyrights and trademarks. Therefore, consulting with a patent attorney to discuss the feasibility and strategy of patenting your inventions is beneficial.

6. Safeguard Trade Secrets

A trade secret is information that:

• Has potential or actual economic value because other parties are unaware of the information
• Is valuable to other parties who cannot legally obtain the information
• Is kept a secret through reasonable efforts of the owner

Identify information that qualifies as trade secrets, such as recipes, formulas, customer lists, designs, instruments, processes, methods, and practices. The information is usually the product of your company’s research and development.

You do not register trade secrets with the government. Instead, you must implement security measures to keep trade secrets confidential. Examples of such measures include:

• Use of NDAs and confidentiality agreements
• Securing and limiting physical access to sensitive information
• Restricting access to select employees
• Employee education and policies on protection
• Labeling materials as confidential
• Vendor confidentiality terms
• Employee activity audits regarding trade secrets

You must periodically review your policies and procedures for confidential information and trade secrets to ensure the highest level of intellectual property protection for this IP asset.

7. Manage IP Internally

Protecting intellectual property begins with the diligence of company owners and employees. Educate your team about the importance of IP and how to protect IP. Establish internal IP policies and procedures for handling and protecting IP and rigorously enforce the rules.

8. Monitor IP Use

Set up a system to regularly check for intellectual property infringements online and offline. Use watermarking software, reverse image lookup, digital rights management systems, and plagiarism checkers or third-party IP monitoring services.

9. Enforce Your IP Rights

Report infringements to the U.S. National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center. Remedies include:

• Injunctions: Courts stop unauthorized use.
• Statutory Damages: Set by law, even without proof of exact damages.
• Actual Damages: Compensation for proven losses.
• Court Orders: May include destruction of infringing materials or legal fee reimbursement.

Work with a Maryland business attorney to ensure you enforce your rights quickly and effectively.

10. Review and Update IP Protections

Your IP protection strategy should be reviewed and updated regularly to reflect business growth, changes in IP law, and new intellectual property assets as they are developed.

11. Consult Intellectual Property Professionals

Enlisting the help of a Maryland business attorney ensures compliance, enforcement, protection, and planning for your IP assets.

Contact Our Maryland Business Attorney for More Information

Attorney Steve Thienel of Thienel Law has extensive experience in matters related to business law, including assisting businesses and entrepreneurs in protecting their intellectual property. Contact our office today to discuss how we can help you develop an IP asset strategy to prevent your confidential information and intellectual property from being used without your authorization.

The above checklist does not constitute legal advice. Our Maryland business lawyer is available to discuss your specific situation to develop a plan to help you protect your IP assets in a competitive landscape.