Enhancing the Managerial DNA of Your Small Business

Appendix C

Intellectual Property Protection

As the name implies, intellectual property includes those things that can be viewed as creations of your mind that you believe to be valuable enough to protect. The major forms of intellectual property protection include: copyrights, patents, trademarks (for products) or service marks (for services), and trade secrets. Each will be discussed in this brief appendix.

All forms of intellectual property protection grant the holder a virtual monopoly with respect to the property, with some conditions and term limitations. Nonetheless, you should be aware that the intellectual property protection is of no use to you if you cannot afford to take the legal action to enforce your rights to the property.1 Certainly, ...