If you look at the books of large companies these days you will discover that their intellectual property (IP) adds a tremendous amount to the balance sheet. In fact most businesses fixed assets are minute in comparison to the brand and IP value. This tells us something very interesting – yes – how much more would your business be worth if you invested more in IP identification and registration?
When a business strategically identifies, maintains and secures its IP rights then this can plainly have a huge impact on the company in terms of its overall operation, including its ability to appeal to investors, enter into specific business partnership, and in the end increase its value when it comes to sale or business merger.
Large businesses who have mega-brands like McDonalds and Coca Cola are often cited when it comes to their brand value as out-valuing their fixed assets hundreds of times, yet it is easy to forget how these businesses also became so enormous.
We live in an information world now. Information businesses like Google can be valued at a few billion dollars a few years after creation only because information is now so valuable. Information is a tradable asset only when it is protected by intellectual property laws and other laws. Every business, big or small should consider intellectual property (IP) seriously. It is one of the best investments literally you can make with a company if the IP value is capitalized within the company and added to the balance sheet.
It is highly recommended for businesses of all sizes to be aware of IP issues and create particular strategies that will proactively ensure that their intellectual property will at all times be properly legally protected.
Here are a few areas to help you start focusing on by first identifying the areas that you are creating intellectual property (IP) in:
1. Trademarks – these protect parts of your overall brand such as mottoes, images, names.
2. Copyrights – these cover the protection of expressive items such as documents, books, pictures, video recordings, audios etc.
3. Trade secrets – these protect proprietary information, internal know-how, systems and processes that are deemed to give you a business competitive edge
4. Patents and industrial designs which protect specific types of ideas and inventions and processes
Considering the above items the first step that you need to do is identifying current intellectual property (IP) within your company. You may be amazed by how much you may have. Once all sources of a company’s intellectual property (IP) have been identified, processes should be put in place that enable the company to easily keep track of all existing intellectual property and all new IP . Then someone needs to be given the responsibility to manage the IP.
Once the key intellectual property (IP) has been identified then the next step is to look at what should be registered to protect it legally. This is where a good patent lawyer comes in to play. Good intellectual property (IP) attorneys don’t come cheap but seeing the value that is created then it pays off to invest for all your major IP.
Learn more about Trademark Registration Singapore and discover how does a trademark lawyer and IP protection add value to your business very fast.
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