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February
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The Importance of Protecting Your Intellectual Property in the UAE
The United Arab Emirates is a city full of innovation, people are filled with ideas and creative minds which makes it a competitive place for business owners, entrepreneurs and innovative individuals but does everyone know the importance of protecting your own ideas from theft and copying? If you’re one of those that are not aware, keep reading.
What are Intellectual Properties?
It is simply any product or work created from original thought and are considered intangible or that don’t necessarily have a physical presence. Some examples are articles and blog posts, design or product, your website content, inventions, business names, product names, artwork, manuscripts and other original work that mainly benefits your business.
These ideas that came from you are properly protected by various federal and state laws which is a great news. Identifying and protecting intellectual properties are important these days because they hold high value in today’s increasingly knowledge-based economy. Companies especially hold an important responsibility in preventing others from deriving value from their IPs as it can be far more valuable than a company’s physical assets and it represents a competitive advantage in their industry and mainly protects their consumers.
Types of Intellectual Property
- Copyrights
It is the exclusive right that the owner of an intellectual property has to that specific property. In simple words, it is the right to copy. Copyright law gives creators of the original material the exclusive right for further use and duplicate the material in a given amount of time. Once the copyright expires, the copyrighted item becomes a public domain.
- Trademarks
Trademarks are exclusively assigned to companies, meaning that the company owns the trademark so that no others may use or copy it. Trademarks can be a symbol, phrase or insignia that represents a product that legally separates it from other products. A great example is the logo and brand name of Nike owned by Nike, Inc.
- Patents
It is a property right granted to inventors for inventions which could be a design, process, improvement, or physical invention such as a machine. Patents are usually granted to technology and software companies for their original workings.
- Digital Assets
This type of intellectual property is increasingly being recognized as IP these days. These would include proprietary software code or algorithms, and online digital content.
- Franchises
It is a license that a company, individual, or party-called the franchisee-purchases allowing them to use a company’s-the-franchisor-name, trademark, proprietary knowledge, and processes. Franchisee is typically an entrepreneur or a small business owner who will operate the franchise or store and sell a product or provide a service under the company’s name. In return for this, the franchisor is paid a start-up fee and ongoing licensing fees by the franchisee.
- Trade Secrets
This is a company’s practice or process that is highly confidential, which provides an economic benefit or advantage to the company or holder of the trade secret. Examples of trade secrets could be a design, pattern, recipe, formula, or proprietary process. It must be actively protected by the company and is typically the result of a company’s research and development that resulted for the purpose of using it to create a business model that differentiates the company’s offerings and services for a competitive advantage.
What should I do to protect my Intellectual Properties?
There are essential steps you can follow in order to protect your IP, following them should lower the chances of theft and should give your Intellectual Property a solid protection if someone does steal your IP.
- Keep your ideas confidential before they’re out to the public
As much as you can, avoid talking about your intellectual property with others, keep all the ideas and concepts to yourself unless they have signed a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) in the presence of an attorney or a legal professional.
- Create detailed documentation
Prepare detailed drawings, descriptions, plans and records with the accurate dates possible as this is a critical part of IP matters and it will show and prove that you have been working on your intellectual property for a while. This type of proof will be helping you massively in case someone challenges you as the rightful owner of your trademarks and copyrights.
- Apply for a trademark
Create a good and memorable trademark and register those trademarks right away if they’re final. Remember that making the trademarks unique and catchy for your business will give you an advantage over competitors.
- Register all your Intellectual Properties
Along with your trademarks, start calling S & S Lawyers experienced legal professionals, get the free legal consultation and start registering the rest of your assets and make sure that you have all the details written down to be able to distinguish it from potentially existing similar ideas. Our lawyers can help you consider doing an IP audit for a more formal IP portfolio document and protect your Intellectual property rights from future infringement.
- Make the right investment
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