Whenever you launch a new business start-up, there are a myriad of costs to consider. These include a host of so-called essential costs, which impact directly on your ability to do business and generate income.
Unfortunately, this often causes companies to eschew costs that are deemed as being non-essential, so that they can save money and boost their near-term prospects.
Take intellectual property (IP) protection, for example, which may not seem like a priority for new businesses but remains vital to its long-term success. It's important that you understand this, and take the following steps to safeguard the IP that is integral to your venture.
- Work with Partners to Understand how IP Protection Works
When attempting to protect your businesses IP, it's crucial that you seek out expert advice at the earliest opportunity. This ensures that you secure comprehensive protection for your IP, avoiding potential issues with competitors and minimising the risk of future litigation.
Service providers such as DWF can help you to achieve these objectives, while helping you to create, safeguard and ultimately enforce your intellectual property. This may be particularly important when you have an IP portfolio, as enforcing several different elements of intellectual property can be extremely challenging over time.
The utilisation of expert legal advice can also enable you to create complex and legally compliant agreements, while identifying new opportunities to monetise and potentially license your IP in the future.
- Complete all Due Diligence
It's also crucial that you perform due diligence when developing and refining your IP, especially if its central to the unique selling point of your venture.
More specifically, you'll need to complete comprehensive research to ensure that nobody else owns the rights to your IP, particularly competitors within your market. Similarly, you'll need to determine whether there are similar patents or IP licences in existence, as this may require you to adapt your IP and identify potential challenges.
Expert assistance can also help with this process, especially in terms of expediting the arrival of licenses or determining precise what it possible.
- Consider Opportunities for Safe and Profitable Licensing
Once you have fully recognised the importance of your IP and protected it, it would be foolish not to consider opportunities to license this. This can deliver significant gains over time, while creating a passive and lucrative revenue stream for your venture.
Licensing your IP will require you to create an agreement, which must be negotiated sensibly and with a keen willingness to compromise. This will develop a fair and mutually beneficial agreement that suits all parties while opening up a host of new commercial relationships in the process.
Another important step is to determine the criteria for the use of your licensed IP, including key issues such as exclusive rights. When you grant exclusive licensing rights you cannot sell your IP to other companies, so you need to decide whether you want to enter into a single, lucrative agreement or share your property with a large group of partners.
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