Creations of the mind...

Intellectual property (IP) refers to the property of your mind or intellect for which exclusive rights are recognised.   Intellectual property law grants owners exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets; these may include words, phrases, scents, inventions, designs, symbols etc.  There are seven types of Intellectual Property rights available, these include;

• Patents
• Trademarks
• Design
• Copyright
• Circuit layout rights
• Plant breeder’s rights
• Confidentiality/trade secrets

Intellectual property is a vital asset to organisations, especially in today’s knowledge economy where ideas equal revenue.  It is essential that organisations take measures to protect their intellectual property assets from competitors who may try to replicate their ideas.  There are a number of measures businesses can take to protect their IP, these include:

• Registration of intellectual property, in the form of patents or trademarks, to ensure the organisation maintains exclusive rights to the asset. 
• Keeping an organisations property within a restricted group of people
• Demonstration of ownership of IP, this can be aided by organisations taking simple steps such as documenting their product.

Today intellectual property rights can be bought, sold and licensed to third parties often causing confusion as to who actually has exclusive rights to certain assets. It is the organization’s job to monitor the market to ensure that their IP rights are not being infringed.  In these ever advancing technological times where organisations compete largely online it is important to be a step ahead and put in place strategies to deal with infringement of IP before it occurs.  

It is essential that organisations understand the ownership relationship as confusion can lead to loss of assets or infringement of laws put in place to protect these rights.  If organisations do not take steps to protect their IP they may risk losing this property to competitors who can then replicate their ideas in their own products.  This could result in significant revenue loss for organizations that do not protect their IP.