Every business, a startup or an established company, has intellectual property assets that can provide a competitive advantage. Any business with a name, logo, advertisements, inventions, know-how, custom software, customer lists or a website has Intellectual Property and should understand how to protect it.

Intellectual property law is often complex and it is important to know the basic rules on how best to protect the company’s intellectual property assets.

But why should a startup protect his Intellectual Property?

Intellectual Property is a business asset and has commercial value. Startup companies should be careful in developing and protecting their intellectual property for many reasons, including:

1. to protect their competitive advantage
2. to use intellectual property as a marketing edge
3. to increase the value of the business and
4. to use IP as a potential revenue stream through licensing.

A company’s intellectual property portfolio is of relevant interest to angel investors or venture capitalists and, for this reason, startups need to invest in intellectual property to make the business more attractive to investors.

Companies need to take precaution steps to protect intellectual property by filing patent applications where appropriate, registering trademarks and copyrights, and taking appropriate steps to protect trade secrets.

Protecting Intellectual Property early in the formation of the business, a company provides safety to investors, builds credibility, and creates a solid foundation that can be capitalized on later.

As a startup company, you also need to be aware of others intellectual property rights to ensure that nobody can prevent or limit you from operating your business.

Intellectual property is often created during the earliest stages of a company life and especially startups need to develop a specific, robust intellectual property strategy from the beginning in order to maximize the value of these important assets.

If you want to get closer to Intellectual Property, read this infographic, you will find the basic rules for correct management of your intellectual property rights through a simple tool such as a clear table in which you can find basic suggestions on what to do and what not to do.

Five types of intellectual property are analyzed in this infographic:

Brand names
Patents
Design
Copyright
Trade secrets

With the support of EUIPO.