While certainly not inexpensive, a startup should see IP legal counsel as an investment. The whole startup could be jeopardized without it. ~ Ben Robinson, Co-Founder, Bookkeepers.com
In the high-stakes world of startups, safeguarding your intellectual property is paramount. We’ve gathered insights from CEOs and founders, among others, to bring you thirteen key strategies for protecting your innovations right from the start. From implementing confidentiality and educating teams early to conducting comprehensive intellectual property audits, these business leaders offer their invaluable advice on securing your startup’s intellectual assets.
- Implement Confidentiality and Educate Teams Early
- Involve Qualified IP Attorneys from the Start
- Shield Ideas from Larger Competing Enterprises
- File Provisional Patents
- Require CIIAA for Employees and Contractors
- Document All Intellectual Property Assets Thoroughly
- Establish Robust NDAs to Protect Innovations
- Collaborate with Legal for Marketing Protections
- Set Up Virtual Proxy Office for Security
- Draft Proprietary Data and Innovation Agreements
- Regularly Review and Update IP Strategies
- Ensure IP Type Aligns with Business Goals
- Conduct a Comprehensive Intellectual Property Audit
Implement Confidentiality and Educate Teams Early
In early-stage startups, first, founders/key stakeholders should include intellectual property as part of their agenda along with their other plans and educate themselves and their teams about its importance.
They need to implement strict confidentiality measures, including non-disclosure agreements, to protect sensitive information and take support from IP attorneys from the very initial stage of their ideas to understand the novelty of their inventions and eventually to protect their technologies.
By developing a comprehensive IP strategy, startups can establish a firm foundation for growth while minimizing risks associated with unauthorized use of their valuable assets.
Deepak Kumar Jain, Business Leader
Involve Qualified IP Attorneys from the Start
In order to protect your intellectual property, you must involve a qualified attorney from the start. There is no replacement for sound legal advice from someone who knows IP law well.
Don’t make the mistake I see so many make, which is to go to your local attorney. IP is a specialized skill set that few attorneys master.
While certainly not inexpensive, a startup should see IP legal counsel as an investment. The whole startup could be jeopardized without it.
Ben Robinson, Co-Founder, Bookkeepers.com
Shield Ideas from Larger Competing Enterprises
It’s okay to share what you’re working on with small companies, but you should shield your ideas from larger enterprises that have the resources to knock off your idea before you formally protect your IP.
Justin Silverman, Founder and CEO, Merchynt
File Provisional Patents
As a business leader, one of the most important steps you can take to protect your intellectual property in the early stages of a startup is to file for provisional patents. Provisional patents provide you with an early filing date and allow you to refine your invention over the next year before converting to a nonprovisional patent application. This allows you time to flesh out your product while still establishing an early priority date.
Filing a provisional patent application is relatively inexpensive and simple, requiring less extensive claims and drawings. It gives you the full year to decide if you want to pursue a full utility patent or keep your invention as a trade secret. This early filing can block competitors from patenting similar ideas, buying you time to get your product to market first.
Besides provisional patents, implement nondisclosure agreements with employees and investors to ensure your product plans and designs remain confidential. Trade secrets, copyright, and trademark protection may also apply depending on your intellectual property. But filing provisional patents early in the startup process is often the most strategic first step to protect your intellectual property rights and block competitors.
Eugene Klimaszewski, President, Mammoth Security
Require CIIAA for Employees and Contractors
One simple thing to do is ensure that every employee and contractor signs a CIIAA when they start. The Confidential Information and Inventions Assignment Agreement is an important part of the paper trail to ensure your company actually, clearly owns the IP it is producing.
Trevor Ewen, COO, QBench
Document All Intellectual Property Assets Thoroughly
Business leaders in the early stages of a startup should prioritize the meticulous documentation of all intellectual property assets as a foundational step for their protection. Creating and maintaining detailed records of your brand and achievements, including inventions, trade secrets, product designs, software code, and proprietary information, is vital.
This commitment to thorough documentation serves multiple purposes: establishing clear ownership, strengthening patent applications, facilitating partnerships and licensing, defending against infringement claims, and enhancing transparency for potential investors. By committing to comprehensive record-keeping from the outset, leaders can build a robust foundation for safeguarding their startup’s innovations, fostering growth, and minimizing legal risks.
Joanne Demeireles, CXO, Oula Health
Establish Robust NDAs to Protect Innovations
In the startup arena, securing your brainchild is paramount. My advice? Lock down your intellectual property (IP) pronto. Begin with robust non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Trust me, they’re your invisible shields. Forge these agreements when sharing your vision with partners, collaborators, or anyone privy to your startup’s secret sauce. According to studies, 78% of startup disputes arise because of IP concerns.
Joe Li, Managing Director, CheckYa
Collaborate with Legal for Marketing Protections
Having worked with many product and company launches where IP is an important consideration, it’s my job as the marketing leader to work directly and consistently with the legal team to understand their concerns and directions for protecting the company’s intellectual property.
This can mean everything from providing a review of copywriting to working hand-in-hand for the application for trademark protection, all of which requires legal and marketing to cooperatively inform each other of their work to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.
Marketing at a startup can move very quickly, and only with a cooperative environment can the legal team do their job to keep things under control. Marketing can also have high visibility for infringements, which can be extremely helpful with the legal team’s enforcement work. As it is my job to watch the competitive landscape, I can often make legal aware of potential challenges to address long before they would have crossed their desks from standard search protocols.
Maryann Pfeiffer, Principal and Founder, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing
Set Up Virtual Proxy Office for Security
As a business leader, protecting intellectual property in the early stages of a startup is an important step toward ensuring long-term success.
One lesser-known strategy I recommend is setting up a virtual proxy office. This means renting out server space with another company to host files containing confidential information. The benefit of this practice is that it eliminates many security risks associated with traditional hard drive storage and ensures your sensitive data won’t be compromised because of physical theft or other malicious acts.
Combined with additional security measures, such as encryption or password protection, this approach can provide added assurance for safeguarding valuable IP assets.
Tasia Duske, CEO, Museum Hack
Draft Proprietary Data and Innovation Agreements
Think about internal ownership even before concentrating on what needs to be protected by trade secrets, copyrights, patents, and trademarks. You should take quick action that might prevent arguments.
A well-drafted proprietary data and innovation assignment agreement—which transfers ownership of work created while an employee or contractor works for your company—should be signed by each founder, employee, and contractor. The majority of the time, founders neglect this simple and low-cost corporate hygiene in favor of expanding their business.
Daniel Li, Co-Founder and CEO, Plus
Regularly Review and Update IP Strategies
Regularly reviewing and updating IP-protection strategies is a continuous-improvement step we recommend. As a startup evolves and expands, intellectual-property needs may change. Regular assessments and adjustments to IP-protection efforts ensure that the startup remains proactive and resilient against IP threats.
Michael Nemeroff, CEO and Co-Founder, Rush Order Tees
Ensure IP Type Aligns with Business Goals
It would be advisable for you to concentrate on the key steps required to safeguard the intellectual property of your startup.
First, determine what types of IP you have, such as trademarks or patents, and know how they are protected. One must ensure that all employees, as well as contractors, sign IP assignment agreements so that any created IP rights are owned by your company. You should also include non-disclosure agreements in the contracts to protect confidential information.
Additionally, take a few more steps, such as conducting trademark searches for your company name and any product names you may have, to avoid infringing on another company’s trademark rights. If going international, consider filing under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Lastly, create a written, comprehensive IP strategy that speaks to the vision of your business goals.
Lyle Solomon, Principal Attorney, Oak View Law Group
Conduct a Comprehensive Intellectual Property Audit
I would recommend starting with a comprehensive audit of your intellectual property holdings. This entails the comprehensive identification of all assets that may be classified as intellectual property within the venture.
Such assets may consist of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and proprietary processes or methods. Take note of everything you own, figure out how much it’s worth, and see how it fits into the bigger picture of your company’s strategy. Prioritizing which IP assets need protection right away and establishing a solid IP management plan are both helped by this procedure.
Tim Allen, Director, Oberheiden P.C.
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