The excitement of creating a new invention may compel you to tell everyone you know. However, you must prioritize protecting your new idea over sharing your success. You most likely put a great deal of time and effort into your invention, and therefore, it is in your best interest to protect it.
You can obtain security through patents and copyrights; however, this doesn’t ensure complete, impenetrable protection. Unfortunately, copies often make their way to the forefront, and your idea becomes less valuable.
Luckily, we have compiled a list of ten ways you can best protect your intellectual property. Make sure to consider all these options, their pros, and their cons. This way, you can ensure the most well-rounded, effective protection for your invention.
- Don’t File Any PatentsWhile this may seem strange, it is crucial to remember that filing a patent essentially provides the foundation of how the service or product is created. This leads to other companies taking this foundation to create similar or better products and services that strategically work around the patent. Instead, you should consider standardizing your idea with a standards association. This way, other people or companies are barred from replicating an idea similar to your own.
- Run Continuous Innovation CyclesUnfortunately, plagiarism is not uncommon in various markets like the tech sector. This is one of the reasons innovation in technology moves at such a rapid pace. Therefore, it is essential to always be ahead of the game and let your competitors trail behind.
- Separate Your Teams’ DutiesStrategize what information to provide each sector of your business and how to deliver it to them. This way, your teams will have to work together to combine their knowledge of your service or product to steal it. Separating your information is a common but effective way to ensure your information is secure and protected.
- Open Your Services and Products Up to the PublicWhile this may seem like the opposite of protecting your intellectual property, open sourcing your ideas can help you focus on adding value to the idea once everyone else has had the opportunity to improve on it. This way, your ideas remain proprietary, and you can move forward with agility and speed.
- Avoid Joint OwnershipIf you follow anything on this list, remember to avoid joint ownership of your intellectual property. Having joint ownership will only cause problems down the road and make it even more challenging to protect your ideas.
- Obtain Domains That Match ExactlyOne of the best methods of protecting your intellectual property is by obtaining exact-match domain names. Even though it may cost you more money in the short run, the benefits of securing an exact-match domain name cannot be comparable in the long run.
- Secure Strong Access ControlStore any ideas, manuscripts, and creations in a secure place protected by access management and identity solution. 81% of breaches are due to insecure credentials. Therefore, you must store any intellectual property in a system that utilizes two-factor authentication or other effective authentication methods. In today’s technological era, passwords alone have, unfortunately, become obsolete.
- Obtain Non-Disclosure AgreementsConsult with professional attorneys to create well-written non-disclosure agreements. Ensure that any NDAs involved with your business most effectively protect your intellectual property. These can include sales contracts, licenses, and employment agreements.
- Remain DiscreteOne of the most common and effective ways to protect your intellectual property is by keeping the information secret. Do not disclose any trade secrets crucial to your ideas and remain quiet so that no one steals them for profit.
- Publish Your Work with AttributionsTo ensure people know your intellectual property is, in fact, your own, you can continuously publish the ideas and attributing it to your company name. This method is most useful for intellectual property that would not be considered a trade secret.
For more information about how to protect your intellectual property, contact Stanzione & Associates, PLLC at (202)349-1124 or https://www.stanzioneiplaw.com/ today!
Stanzione & Associates, PLLC is an intellectual property law firm with over 30 years of experience protecting corporate entities, start-ups, and individual inventors. Stanzione & Associates, PLLC stands above other Intellectual Property law firms because of Mr. Stanzione’s extensive experience working at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as a supervisory level patent examiner. At Stanzione & Associates, PLLC, we have the insight and long-term relationships with the USPTO to work well with patent examiners to achieve quality patents.
