How does IP affect me?

If you own a business, no matter how small, it is important to protect your IP. The other aspect of looking into your IP, is that you do not want to infringe on someone else’s intellectual property rights. This is why it is important to take IP seriously from the early stages of your business start up. You do not want to establish your business, only to find that several years down the line, you have to change your company’s trading name and all of your promotional material because of infringement.

Intellectual Property is a valuable asset. Your IP rights can be bought and sold or licensed to other parties. Valuing your IP is difficult and calculations are based on financial forecasts of future earnings from your IP. This work is usually undertaken by accountants or by the Intellectual Property Office. Think carefully about how you can best exploit your IP. You will have invested a lot of time and money in gaining protection for your product/creation and by careful licensing that money can be recouped. Some aspects of IP are legally complex and we would recommend using specialist IP attorneys to assist in these areas.