You’ve come up with a new idea for a product or service and you think it might be a winner. The next step is to protect yourself from other people profiting off your idea or claiming it as their own.

Innovation is the lifeblood of successful business, as new products, services and processes drive economic growth. But a new idea, particularly a lucrative one, also has the potential to be stolen by unscrupulous parties. This makes securing intellectual property (IP) rights for an invention and harnessing the means to enforce patent protection vital steps in safeguarding the results of a company’s or an entrepreneur’s hard work.

According to the United States Chamber of Commerce, IP-intensive industries employ nearly 18 million workers across educational and skill levels and represent 40 percent of the country’s economic growth. Businesses that rely on IP also account for roughly 60 percent of total U.S. exports, having risen from $665 billion in 2000 to $910 billion in 2007. Industry research and development spending, which is closely linked to IP rights, totaled nearly $1.2 trillion over the same period, averaging $145 billion per year.

The huge role that intellectual property plays in the country’s economic health means that IP protection and enforcement are crucially important business factors. An entrepreneur or firm that produces an innovation should always seek some form of defense for it.

“The first step in protecting your business from intellectual property (IP) theft is to protect your IP — both in the United States and in other countries where you do business and source products,” IP protection resource StopFakes.gov explains. “Most IP rights are territorial, meaning, for example, a U.S. patent or trademark only provides protection in the United States. To receive IP protection in other countries, you need to apply for protection in those countries.”

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), there are several different types of IP protection, including: patents, which may be issued to someone who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof;” trademarks, which establish rights for distinctive words, names, symbols, sounds or colors; and copyrights, which protect original works of authorship, both published and unpublished.

U.S. utility patents usually last for 20 years after the application is filed, while trademarks can theoretically last forever as long as they remain in use for commercial purposes. Copyright protections can extend from either 70 years after the death of a work’s creator or 95 years from the time of its publication if it is a “work for hire.”

Apart from filing for a specific form of IP protection from the USPTO, there are several other steps that can be taken to secure your rights. AllBusiness.com offers the following intellectual property tips:

• Invest in legal counsel. An experienced small business or IP attorney can help you decide whether or not to apply for a patent or other form of IP rights.
• Build your knowledge. Although an attorney should guide you through the big decisions, expanding your own IP knowledge by reading a few books is always a smart idea.
• Be realistic. Remember that having an idea patented or trademarked doesn’t guarantee it will be successful. That part is up to you.
• Respect others’ work. Even after you’ve protected your own rights, make sure you aren’t infringing on anyone else’s. Avoid “borrowing” or imitating specific products from other companies.
• Build a comprehensive case. Try to have your idea fully developed before launching it into the market. A well-researched idea with IP protection is much more attractive to potential investors or institutions.
• Seize a competitive advantage. Even if you think no one else is competing for your idea, make sure to secure some kind of legal protection for your intellectual property as this will give you an advantage at investor-sponsored events.
• Be patient. Remember that it takes time to license a patent, copyright or trademark. Just because the process is slow doesn’t mean it’s not working.

Of course, filing for IP rights, hiring legal assistance and conducting research can be expensive. These costs may be prohibitive, especially if working on an entrepreneurial or small business budget.

“Average legal fees to file one patent application in the U.S. are in the range of $12,000-$15,000. Multiply that by three or four to file applications in key locations throughout the world. Then add over $100,000 to maintain each patent in those locations throughout its life,” Tom Colson, the president and CEO of IP.com, writes at IndustryWeek. “All that cost for one invention. The problem grows when you consider that for most companies, the number of inventive ideas exceeds the number of budgeted patent applications by at least ten.”

An alternative to these methods is to establish your idea as a trade secret. Although this is a less formal means of intellectual property protection, it can be an effective safeguard when the cost of maintaining patents is too high or if a concept doesn’t qualify for governmental IP rights.

“What constitutes a trade secret depends on the business. It can be a manufacturing process, a ‘secret sauce’ or products in development. It might include a customer list, a business plan, financials or projections. It can also be ‘negative know-how’: the avenues that you tried that led nowhere,” Inc.com explains. “Putting safeguards in place not only protects this information but also shows interested parties — such as judges and juries — that you tried to protect it, should a dispute ever come to litigation.”

Common ways to set up a trade secret include implementing a company confidentiality policy that is clear to every employee, using non-disclosure agreements when sharing information with any outside or contracted parties and digitally backing up every important document.

Earlier

Diverse Prospects for R&D Funding

The Changing Face of Innovation in the 21st Century

USPTO Debuts New Patent Fast-Track Plan

Resources

How Can I Protect My Intellectual Property?
StopFakes.gov

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Jobs Agenda: Intellectual Property
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 2011

10 Tips on Protecting Intellectual Property
AllBusiness.com

Protecting Your Intellectual Property with Patent Alternatives
by Tom Colson
IndustryWeek, Oct. 10, 2007

How to Protect Your Trade Secrets
Inc.com, Dec. 1, 2009

Protecting Your Company’s Most Important Assets
by Bill Fiduccia
Entrepreneur.com, November 2001