Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think creatively. The great successful men of the world have used their imagination, developed new ideas, explored new horizons and always maintained a lead over their competitors. Business is a game and your ideas are your assets, an edge over others, something that makes you a winner.
However, the value of an idea lies in the use made of it. It is not who develops it but the one who IMPLEMENTS it THAT gets the reward.
What if your idea was being used by your competitor? What if goodwill was employed by your adversary to make a hole in your profits? Would you like to stay back as an onlooker or step forward to protect what is yours? A winner would choose to respond with vigor and so would you.
Intellectual Property is the intangible assets AND VALUE that result from your idea. These intangible assets are highly valuable and are being recognized as major indicators of a company’s business success.
Patents, Designs, Trademarks, Copyrights, Trade Secrets, and Geographical Indications are the foundation of many major businesses and form the most valuable critical assets. How you define and protect your ideas, creativity and inventions are strategic issues that DECIDE the bottom-line of your success.
Intellectual property rights are the rights of an owner to RESTRICT anyone else using, copying or disturbing the information or item which is their intellectual property. Most businesses, including yours, own or use some type of intellectual property, for example, logos, brand names, literary or artistic material (e.g. operations manuals, software, data bases, training materials, sound or visual recordings), designs and unique colour schemes, inventions, new products, new processes, etc.
In short, if you have something that DISTINGUISHES your business IDENTITY or is created by you, it may have a value that can be quantified and could create value either on your balance sheet, or upon THE IMAGE of a business. Besides these, you can also adequately protect your assets from being used by others without your authorization.
Knowing AND APPRECIATING Intellectual Property (IP) is relevant in many ways. In business IP has real value that can be identified financially as an asset on your balance sheet.
If your IP could be used by another person or business you could gain income by licensing or franchising the use of your IP to that person or business for a fee or royalty.You can stop an unauthorized user from exploiting your IP and may claim damages for any harm that such user may have caused you.
It is possible to separate the IP component of your business from the trading operations. A separated IP portfolio shall enable you to transact in them without involvement of your trading operations.
Finally, analyzing your IP as well as that of others would help you determine what you can and cannot do in developing your own products and services and in your operations and administrative functions. It would be devastating for your business to build up a brand or reputation only to receive a letter from a lawyer demanding you stop using your brand name or change the design of your product because you had not checked THE USE A CERTAIN REGISTERED BRAND BEFORE starting.
A COMPETENT lawyer with knowledge in this area can assist IN creating your IP portfolio, protecting your ideas against unauthorized use, shielding you and your business against aggressive IP enforcement BY others, selling or buying IP, licensing, trademarks, confidentiality agreements or general advice on any concerns or ambitions you have. We provide everything to meet the needs of your business and to help it flourish. We work hard to assist you win.