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How to Protect your New Business Idea

Do you have a business idea that you love? If so then you will want to make sure that you protect it as much as possible. If you don’t then you may find that you end up losing out to someone else, and this is the last thing you want. Take a look below if you want to do something about this.

Patents

A patent is an exclusive right that is granted by the government. It is given to the inventor. The patent holder can easily stop other people from making or creating a similar product without permission. If you want to obtain a legal right such as this, then you will need to go through testing, examination and finally, granting. You will need to do this before you receive any protection at all. You also need to make sure that you cover as many countries as possible with your patent. Worldwide patents are the most secure, for reference.

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Trademarks

Trademarks are usually used to protect names, words and symbols. They also help people to identify a particular set of products or services. Trademarks are powerful for several reasons. First of all, they give you worldwide protection. As the owner, you can easily prevent others from being confused with similar trademarks when selling goods. Trade name law stops companies from trying to register theirs, with the same name as someone else.  So even if you used a business name generator, it wouldn’t matter because as long as it’s not a trademarked name, you’ll be just fine.

There will also be a legal recourse if you do happen to infringe on these rights. Of course, one thing to take note of is that companies can have more than one trademark. Nike has Just Do It, the name Nike and the swoosh logo. If you are set on your name then now would be the time for you to go through the company registrations process.

Copyright

Copyright is a form of intelligence. It gives the owner exclusive rights to an artistic work. Copyright law does protect original works and it also gives protection for music, images and films. Choreography and even songwriters can also claim ownership over their creations, but they can only do this for a limited amount of time. This means that only the owner can make copies of the song, or derive new material from it. This stops people from ripping off other people’s songs, so keep that in mind.

Trade Secrets

Next up, you have trade secrets. Trade secrets are anything that a company doesn’t feel like sharing with the public. It could be a secret spice mix or it could be a technique or process that helps them to gain an advantage over the competition. One example of this would be Coca-Cola and their formula for coke. The recipe has never been revealed and only the top people who work in the business have access to it. There is also one member from every family line who knows the recipe. This dates back to 1892. Of course, the company also has internal information distribution and secure laboratories, to try and keep their information safe.

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