Entrepreneurship, Second Edition

13.1. The Basics: What Is Protectable and How Should It Be Protected?

When someone conceives a new idea or designs a new product or method, two of the first questions to arise are these: Can I protect this? Can I keep competitors from copying this?

There are very practical reasons for protecting a new idea. Investors are loathe to put money into a venture that cannot establish a unique product niche. Stockholders will challenge a corporation's investment of its resources in a program that can be easily copied once it is introduced to the market. All the time, effort, and money you invest in perfecting a product, as well as advertising and promoting it, may be wasted if imitators can enter the market on your heels with a product just like yours. Moreover, the imitators can cut prices because they have not incurred the startup expenses you had to endure to bring the idea from conception to a mass-producible, reliable, and appealing product or service.

The next question is, "Does my new product infringe the IP rights of anyone else?" Only by understanding the basics of IP can you answer that.

Once you have determined that your new idea, product, or method is eligible for one or more forms of IP protection—patent, trade secret, trademark, or copyright—secure the rights as quickly as the budget allows. A single product can qualify for different forms of protection, each obtained in a different manner and providing a different set of rights. For example, consider a typical modern product—a ...