How important is intellectual property protection for a startup?

At the primary stage of a business, there are most of the crucial factors that should be considered, ranging from your branding and target markets to the financial growth of a company. In that way protecting your intellectual property is such an important aspect for all companies, but especially for new startups. The term Intellectual property protection refers to the set of intangible assets owned and legally secured by startups. It gives the restriction against outside utilization or implementation without having official authorization. In simple words, It is a process where you protect your inventions, works, images, art, music, or any other work which you have invented.

Intellectual property helps startups to stand out in a competitive environment, improving their commercial value and provides additional value to the consumers. There are essentially four ways in which a startup can protect its intellectual property through:

●       Patents: A patent provides the official rights to an invention, new products, and innovative processes It also gives ownership to restrict others from remaking, utilizing, importing, or selling these without having your official permission.

●       Trademarks: Trademarks help to protect your brand logo, colors, distinctive words, slogans, and sounds, or in the other manners it helps to identify your startup’s products and services.

●       Copyrights: Copyright protects original authority about artistic, literary, and musical works. It grants authors or creators exclusive right to produce, distribute, assign, license, or do other things with the work.

●       Trade secrets: A trade secret, where protected, confers an exclusive right on innovators who safely keep the details of the secret or magic behind their innovations such as business process, practices, formulae, research notes, and market data.

  

Importance of Intellectual property protections:

1. In today’s highly competitive and dynamic environment, Intellectual Property can be a unique selling proposition (USP) of any product or service, and it helps to create a sustainable and defensible differentiator for the company.

2. By owning Intellectual Property protection, a high-level entry barrier is created, This step provides such a helpful way to grow your venture faster than your competitor's offerings. Furthermore, it always builds a good value for your venture and attracts more investors.

3. IP has been identified as the key ingredient for startups across the world. It is an essential part of your marketing or branding

4. Innovations are being made every day in manufacturing and technology startups. IP provides a greater significance and huge brand value to your startups that help to offer customers something new and different. It allows investors, clients, and other stakeholders to become a market leader in your area of operation.

5. Intellectual property can be used as security for taking out loans.

Startups and established companies cannot neglect the importance of Intellectual property. In order to reduce disputes with Intellectual Property protection resources, new startups should have to secure their technologies and lay the foundation for their future success. Therefore, it's a true fact that Intellectual property can be used as a shield to beat bankruptcy and litigation.