Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property (IP) rights protect the ideas and creations that originate from your business. These include patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets (explained further in Question 3).

IP protection adds value by:

• Preventing others from using your creations without permission.
• Helping you maintain a competitive edge.
• Allowing you to generate income through licensing or selling your IP rights.

It’s best to start thinking about Intellectual Property (IP) protection early—ideally before you share your ideas publicly or begin working with outside partners.

Consider IP protection:

• Before engaging with manufacturers or vendors.
• Before launching your brand or product publicly.
• At every stage of your business, including growth and expansion, to prevent competitors from using your inventions or branding.

Intellectual Property (IP) includes several types of protections, each covering different kinds of creations:

• Patent: Protects new and useful inventions—such as devices, processes, methods, pharmaceutical compounds, or product designs.
• Trade secret: Protects confidential business information, such as formulas, manufacturing methods, or customer lists, as long as the information remains secret.
• Trademark (or service mark): Protects the names, logos, or symbols that identify your business’s goods or services.
• Copyright: Protects original works of expression, like written content, music, software code, or artwork.

Each type of Intellectual Property (IP) right protects different aspects of your business:

• Patents: Prevent others from making, using, selling, or importing your invention without permission.
• Trade secrets: Protect confidential business information from being disclosed or used by others.
• Trademarks: Stop others from copying your brand’s identifying features, such as your name, logo, or slogan.
• Copyrights: Prevent others from using or reproducing your original creative works, like websites, graphics, or written content.

The duration of protection varies depending on the type of Intellectual Property (IP):

• Utility patents: Last up to 20 years from the filing date, provided maintenance fees are paid.
• Design patents: Typically last 15 years from the date of grant.
• Trade secrets: Can last indefinitely, as long as the information remains confidential.
• Trademarks: Do not expire, but must be actively used and periodically renewed to remain valid.
• Copyrights: Generally last for the life of the author plus 70 years.

In some cases, Intellectual Property (IP) rights automatically belong to you when the work is created. However, ownership can be affected by:

• Employment agreements or contracts that assign IP rights to your employer.
• Independent contractor or consulting agreements that define who owns the resulting work.
• The need to register certain rights—like patents—before they are legally recognized.

Always review your contracts and agreements to understand who owns the IP and whether you’re required to transfer those rights.

It depends on the circumstances. If your idea is related to your job duties or the company’s business, the company may have a legal claim to the invention. This is especially true if you used company resources—like tools, materials, or equipment—to develop it.

To determine ownership, you’ll need to:

• Review your employment agreement and any IP-related policies.
• Consider whether the invention was created on company time or using company assets.

A legal review of your specific situation is recommended before moving forward with a patent application.

It depends on the arrangement. If the designer is your employee, the work may be considered a “work for hire,” meaning you likely own the rights—especially for copyrights. However, if the designer is an independent contractor, ownership may remain with them unless a written agreement says otherwise.

Trademark rights can be more complex and may not automatically transfer. To avoid confusion:

• Use a written agreement that clearly states who owns the rights to the work.
• Finalize this agreement before any design work begins.

Not necessarily. If the designer simply follows your instructions to create a model, they are usually not considered an inventor. However, if the designer contributes original ideas or inventive features to the concept, they may have a right to be listed as a co-inventor.

In patent law, inventorship is based on the claims in the patent application. If a person’s contribution is not reflected in those claims, they are not considered an inventor—even if they helped during development.

Yes, many types of Intellectual Property (IP) rights can be sold, transferred, or licensed. For example:

• Patents and trademarks can be sold as part of your business assets.
• Licensing allows others to use your IP while you retain ownership

Having the right agreements in place is essential to protect your Intellectual Property (IP). The type of agreement you need depends on the situation:

• Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs): Crucial for protecting trade secrets and preventing early disclosures of inventions. They should always be used when you are disclosing confidential information.
• Employment or Contractor Agreements: Should include IP clauses that clarify ownership of work created during the engagement.
• Joint-Development Agreements (JDAs): Useful when two or more parties are collaborating on a new invention or product.

These are just a handful of the various types of agreements you may need. The proper agreements help avoid misunderstandings and can ensure your rights are clearly defined from the start.

While not legally required, conducting a search before applying for a patent or trademark is highly recommended. It can help you avoid costly mistakes and delays.

• Trademark searches can identify existing marks that may conflict with yours. This allows you to adjust your branding before investing time and money in an application.
• Patent searches can reveal similar inventions that may affect your ability to get a patent. They also help you focus your application on the truly novel aspects of your invention.

Keep in mind:

• If you conduct a patent search, you must disclose any relevant publications you find to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
• Maintain records of your search results and share them with your patent attorney or agent.

In the United States, you have up to one year from the date of public disclosure to file a patent application. Public disclosure may include:

• Showing your invention at a tradeshow or competition.
• Offering it for sale—even if no physical product was displayed.

However, many other countries require that no public disclosure occurs before filing. If international protection is important to you, early filing is critical.

For trademarks, public use is often required before registration. You can typically register a trademark after you’ve started using it, and in some cases, the registration can reference the earlier date of first use.

The cost of protecting your Intellectual Property (IP) depends on the type of protection you’re seeking. While each situation is unique, here are general estimates:

• Patents: Preparing, filing, and prosecuting a patent application can cost $20,000 or more. This includes drafting the application and responding to questions and examination from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
• Trade secrets: There’s no registration fee, but you may incur legal costs to maintain secrecy—such as drafting Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and enforcing confidentiality with employees or contractors.
• Trademarks: Filing a trademark application typically starts around $2,500 and increases based on the number of product or service categories. Additional costs may arise if the USPTO raises objections or if third parties oppose your application.
• Copyrights: Registration usually costs around $500 for a single work.

No, you don’t need to register your Intellectual Property (IP) in every country. Instead, focus on protecting your IP in the countries where you plan to manufacture, sell, or distribute your products or services.

Keep in mind:

• Patents and trademarks can help block the import of infringing goods—even from countries where you haven’t registered your rights.
• Global registration can be expensive, so prioritize key markets.

If you want international protection, you can use global filing systems to simplify the process:

• Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for patents.
• Madrid Protocol for trademarks.

These systems streamline the filing process across multiple countries, but you’ll still need to go through each country’s review process to secure protection.

Generally, no—you can’t protect the same invention as both a trade secret and a patent at the same time. That’s because:

• Patents require public disclosure of the invention, which ends trade secret protection.
• Trade secrets rely on confidentiality and lose protection once the information becomes public.

However, there are exceptions:

• You can request that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) not publish your patent application if you agree not to file internationally. This can delay public disclosure.
• If you abandon the patent application before it’s published or granted, the invention may still qualify as a trade secret—if it has remained confidential.

Yes, you should always have a written agreement in place when hiring someone to help develop your product or service. This ensures:

• Your company owns all intellectual property (IP) created.
• The relationship is clearly defined to avoid misclassifying a contractor as an employee.

Note: The “work for hire” doctrine doesn’t always apply—especially for software or creative work done by contractors. Specific contract language is needed to secure IP ownership.

The agreements you need will depend on how you plan to sell or license your product or service. Common examples include:

• Terms of use or terms of service for websites or apps
• Purchase order (PO) terms for product sales
• Subscription or license agreements for SaaS or software
• Reseller or distributor agreements if third parties will sell your product

In all cases, make sure your contracts clearly define IP ownership and licensing terms. This helps prevent accidentally giving away more rights than intended.

Yes, but you need to carefully review the license terms before using third-party AI or open source software in your products.

• For AI tools: Understand how your data will be used, whether it will be used to train the model, and what rights the vendor has to your content.
• For open source software: Check for license terms that might require you to share your own source code or limit how you can monetize your product.

These issues can affect your product’s legal compliance and business model.

It depends on where your customers are located:

• In the U.S.: You can usually send marketing emails if you include an opt-out option. For text messages, you generally need express opt-in consent.
• Outside the U.S.: Many countries require opt-in consent for both emails and texts.

Always check local laws before launching a marketing campaign.

Yes. If your website or product collects any personal information—such as a name, email, or IP address—you need a privacy policy.

• Make sure your policy covers both your website and your product (e.g., SaaS or mobile app).
• Some laws also require cookie notices or popups.
• Different states and countries have specific privacy rules, so your policy should reflect the laws that apply to your business.

This is not a good practice.

• These documents must reflect your specific business practices and the laws that apply to you.
• Using a generic or mismatched policy could mislead users and expose you to legal risk.
• Inaccurate policies may be considered deceptive by the FTC or state regulators.

It’s best to create custom documents tailored to your company’s operations and legal obligations.