How to protect your intellectual property

How to protect your intellectual property

You should never underestimate the importance of protecting your company’s intellectual property (IP). This is what makes your business unique. It includes your ideas, internal process, product designs, the methods you use to render your services, etc. Your intellectual property is what sets your business apart from your competitors.

You spend a lot of time, effort and money in developing your company’s IP. You must take every step to ensure that you protect it.

What is your IP?

Any original or creative work that your business has developed into a physical product or service forms part of your company’s IP. According to The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) outlines specific elements that form part of your company’s IP. This includes:

• Literary, artistic and scientific work
• Performances of performing artists
• Inventions in all industries
• Scientific discoveries
• Trademarks or service marks
• Business names and logo designs
• Documented internal business processes

How do you identify your IP?

To make sure that you know exactly what it is that you need to protect, consider conducting an IP audit on your business. You may be surprised to find that the design of your office space or shop floor forms part of your IP, this is known as intangible IP because it improves the way you conduct your business.

Understanding and eliminating the risks to your intellectual property

Once you’ve conducted an audit of your intellectual property the risks become clear. Some of the most common risks that your company’s IP may be facing include:

• Plagiarism of your business material
• Theft of your systems and processes
• Theft of your contact lists and marketing strategies
• Poaching employees with unique talent and expertise

To protect your IP from these risks, take the following action:

• Protect your company’s IP by registering it through the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).
• Have non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with all your employees and partners. These NDAs are legally binding agreements that forbid anyone that comes into contact with your business from sharing confidential information with competitors or use this information themselves.
• Inform your employees that all work performed during the course of their employment for the company will form part of the company’s IP.
• Get independent contractors to sign contracts, handing over the rights to any services or products they produce for your company to your business.

Once you’ve taken steps to protect your IP, it is important to protect any new IP that may be created in your business by conducting regular audits every two years. This becomes especially important once your business starts to grow, you enter into new partnerships or if you decide to sell your business in future.