As an innovative entrepreneur, you most likely would want to promote your new product or service and share it with the world. While protecting your product is a necessary part of doing business, it can also pay to protect what you have worked to create and develop. At Wang IP Law Group, P.C. we often help clients secure their IP rights in the U.S., Asia and Israel.
Forbes reports that there are several effective ways to protect your intellectual property. One of the less common methods is to not file a patent. By their very nature, patents provide a virtual recipe of how you created the product or service. Once published, an individual could create a workaround so as not to violate your intellectual property rights. If you do not file a patent, the recipe cannot be re-created, only approximated.
In what may seem a counterintuitive technique, you can open-source your technology. Not only is it a way to build a competitive advantage, but it allows you to tap into a community of developers. By doing this, your business can focus on the added value of technology, which is the secret to your recipe.
Use well-written non-disclosure agreements, licenses, sales contracts and employment agreements. Make sure all documents address your intellectual property. Modern IP protection methods also include Digital Rights Management systems.
If limiting exposure and keeping trades secrets under wraps is not realistic, publish them. Make sure it receives extensive publicity and it attributes you and your company. The more exposure to your IP and company reference online, the more support any patents you have filed will have.
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