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Intellectual Property
You should take
steps to protect your intellectual property (IP). Examples of IP might
be your company name or brand, artwork, music, designs, images, processes
or knowledge.
There are three main areas
to consider:
- Patents - you can register a novel design, device or
process and get Patent protection. This means others cannot use
this device without your permission. If the device becomes public
then you will not be able to get a patent. You may wish to get
a patent in countries that are significant markets eg UK, EU,
USA and Japan. You can find more information at http://www.patent.gov.uk/patent/index.htm
- Trademarks - you can register a term or an image as a trademark.
This will help you develop and protect a brand that is valuable
to your business. This does not need to be done, but it helps
define who owns the "brand" in event of potential conflict.
For more information seehttp://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/index.htm
- Copyright - any original
work (eg art, music, writing) belongs to the designer by right, unless
he chooses to surrender it to others. To protect it you can use the
© symbol to warn others who might wish to copy it, and it helps
if you can date (and prove it) the work in event of any subesequent
discussions over ownership. For more information visit http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/index.htm.
For further reading
about the whole IP area, visit http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk.
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