Entrepreneurship, Second Edition

13.12. CONCLUSION

Consider now again the hypothetical handheld microprocessor-based product. Suppose you need a supply agreement for the microprocessor itself, a consultant to write the software, and a manufacturing house to deliver the main circuit board to you for final assembly. A license to a patent covering a component you want to incorporate in the product is required, and you also need a designer to develop your Website that will advertise the product for sale. Confidentiality concerns probably exist with respect to all the resulting agreements, as do ownership and noncompetition issues.

Time passes and the product is an unqualified success. Have any of your ex-employees, suppliers, consultants, or vendors begun competing unfairly? With your own IP—patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets—in place, you have a good chance of protecting your market share. And with your written agreements clearly spelling out the ownership, noncompetition, and confidentiality issues, you further protect your valuable IP.

Or did you rely on the wrong form of IP protection or forget to address IP ownership issues and/or the IP of others? Did your provisional patent application lack sufficient details? Did you fail to meet a deadline imposed by law, cut out certain types of protection because of budget constraints, or fail to conduct the necessary searches to make sure, for example, your trademark was clear? Now, not only might the people you once trusted compete but others, too, might ...