Are you protecting the innovative secrets that set you apart from the competition?
Ideas, industry trade secrets, and innovative design concepts are some of the most important factors that determine the future earnings of a company. They certainly are the elements that set a company apart from their competition. So it should come as a huge surprise that a recent survey found that two out of every three executives felt that they were failing to recognize or protect the soft assets of company ideas, secrets, intellectual property, and design concepts.
Why are so many companies failing to protect themselves and solidify their bottom line? It might simply be a matter of “old school” thought that placed a higher priority on quantifiable assets like plants, equipment and inventory. As the world changes though, this refusal to adapt can get expensive, even bankrupting a company. What are some of the hidden dangers companies face in nurturing their future?
The biggest dangers of leaving trade secrets and design concepts unprotected:
Danger #1: Not understanding the value or even the existence of their intellectual properties. It’s imperative to evolve as the world changes. Conducting a portfolio assessment that articulates the treasure trove of ideas your company is sitting on including the licenses, design concept drawings, customer and supplier lists, and any open source software is all part of the first step a company should take to determine the intellectual property that needs protection.
Danger #2: Intellectual property theft & product manipulation. A 2011 article by the FBI stated, “Intellectual property theft is a growing threat…and much of the theft takes place overseas, where laws are often lax and enforcement more difficult. All told, intellectual property theft costs U.S. businesses billions of dollars a year and robs the nation of jobs and lost tax revenues.” Protecting our intellectual property has never been more important than today!
Danger #3: Not understanding the hidden complexities in protecting intellectual capital such as trade secrets and design concepts. Confidentiality agreements are often the only method available to stop employees from sharing trade secrets. Unfortunately, employers frequently make the deadly mistake of underestimating their complexity. An increasingly common practice is to use a “blanket approach” to these agreements. This can lead to “holes” in the protection the document offers.
Danger #4: Getting the protection of your intellectual property into the right hands. The way a patent is written can make or break the future of an idea. A patent must be written in such a way that it is broad enough to cover possible future inventions and concepts, but narrow enough to be approved.
Danger #5: Overlooking relationships. You need quality patent and trademark lawyers in the protection of design concepts and trade secrets. A patent examiner reviews patent applications and determines whether they meet the requirements to issue the patent. A patent attorney has an extensive knowledge of the rules and regulations that surround patents and writes the patent application. An adversarial relationship between the examiner and patent attorney can confuse the process. It is inevitable that issues will arise throughout the patent process. The main purpose of the patent examiner is to find any possible reason that your patent should be rejected. The “dance” between the patent attorney and the examiner is a key part of the approval process.
A trustworthy patent attorney should be on the contact list of every innovative company!
The patent attorney you partner with for the protection of trade secrets, design concepts, intellectual property and soft assets has a tremendous effect on the thoroughness and success of the endeavor. Skilled patent protection requires much more than just a law degree. Longevity, experience and a university degree relating to the manufacturing industry is imperative. You’ll also want to hire someone who won’t delegate your future to inexperienced associates and who writes broad applications to provide the best protection and future royalties for your concepts. Because we live in a global economy and most innovative companies want to reach (and are vulnerable to) the world market, the attorney you select should also have international law experience.
