Take a look around, every manufactured product that you see is a piece of intellectual property that share two things in common, they all began as the idea of an inventor that soon turned into a prototype and then a mass-produced product, and they’re protected by the law, and it’s strongly advised that you protect your ideas too! But what exactly is intellectual property? Intellectual property (IP) is any idea for an invention, both commercial and artistic, which belongs strictly to you, and only you should reap the benefits of your ideas.
There are four basic ways to protect your intellectual property, all of which I’m sure you’re familiar with: trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks and patents. Trade secrets pertain to the processes or formulas in the manufacturing of a product that allow it to keeps its commercial advantage, while copyrights protect the content within music, movies, books and more. Trademarks provide protection of your inventions logo which makes your product distinct and, finally patents are given to the inventor or a machine, product, or process that will be beneficial to the public and you can find more detailed explanation on https://www.techtimes.com/articles/249715/20200518/how-inventhelp-gets-new-inventors-onto-the-right-path.htm.
So why should you protect your intellectual property? To begin, any individual that comes up with the idea for a new invention deserves the credit for any success that it may have and collect the benefits from it. In addition, the theft of intellectual property is a global problem, with nearly 7-8% of all traded goods being counterfeited, resulting in almost $512 billion in lost sales; additionally, intellectual property theft is costing Americans over 750,000 jobs a year!
How can you, then, protect your own inventions? Because the process of obtaining a trade secret, copyright, trademark or patent is a lengthy process, requiring a great deal of paperwork, timing and money, the most advised route is to hire a lawyer who is familiar with this type of law, and he or she will then determine the appropriate type of protection and help you through the process of protecting your intellectual property as you can read from https://www.valuewalk.com/2020/05/medical-invention-covid-19/.
Whether your invention is still a mess of ideas on paper, or a working prototype, it’s crucial that you begin the process of protecting it to the fullest!
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