Take a moment and learn about the steps about how you can protect your IP. As a small business owner have you take the steps to protect your IP? What are the steps that you will take today to put a IP plan in place?

FixLearning consultants offer support in helping small businesses derive their IP plans. Contact us to set up a needs assessment meeting.

Intellectual property rights are a valuable asset for any small business owner. They can be used to protect your business and its assets, including:

Your ideas. If someone steals your idea, they will have an unfair advantage over you in the marketplace.

Your creations. If someone copies one of your products or services, it could damage your reputation and make consumers less likely to buy from you in the future, or even worse, they may decide not to buy at all!

Reputation is one of the most important things for any business; if someone thinks poorly of your company because they believe that it’s trying to steal from others or sell inferior products or services made by another company (even though this isn’t true), then sales could drop dramatically as a result!

Small business owners in any industry can have intellectual property that needs protecting. Learn how to identify IP and ensure that it’s protected.

Businesses create intellectual property (IP) whenever they establish a proprietary process, product, logo, literary work, or other original creation. If your business has IP, there are certain legal protections you can and should put in place to safeguard it from imitation or misuse.</p style=”color: #000;”> There are various types of IP, including:

• Patents: Patents can protect a company’s method or process for up to 20 years if the creation is deemed useful and novel.
• Trademarks: Trademarks protect brands — including their logos, taglines, and even company names — from imitation. To trademark a business in the United States and obtain commercial rights, you just need to be the first to use it. However, through the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO), you can register your trademark for stronger protection.
• Copyrights: Copyrights don’t require you to file anything; instead, it begins at the moment something is created. However, federally registering your copyrighted work allows for your business to have a stronger case of ownership, should infringement occur.
• Trade secrets: Businesses that have commercially valuable information that must remain confidential can help ensure this happens through nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and by limiting the number of people who have access to the information.

To determine what IP assets your business has, the USPTO released an IP Identifier tool that identifies IP using questions and real-life examples and offers protection solutions.