Protecting your intellectual property

By Jerry Bridge-Butler Chartered Patent Attorney and Chartered Trademark Attorney, and a Partner at Baron Warren Redfern

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as the saying goes, but it usually does not feel that way in business when someone copies your products or brand names.

The actual Oscar Wilde quote is: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness,” which reveals he was actually being ironic, and that his true meaning was to demean those who copy. Protecting your intellectual property gives you the power to prevent your inventions, designs, brands, and original content from being ripped off. However, the numbers of businesses which do not bother is alarmingly high. Usually, the excuse is that it is too expensive, or that the threat is too low.

Neither of these things is true, but such concerns clearly lead many to turn away from IP protection. This is a problem because any business which ignores IP misses out on some serious benefits.

The most important of these is that it adds intrinsic value to your business. If you ever want to sell up, then a viable exit strategy can only be based on a secure business model, and if IP rights such as trademark registrations, design registrations and patents are not in place when they should be then that is a serious problem. This can bring the price down, or worse scupper the deal completely.

The same thing is true if you are seeking investment. One of the very first things an investor will ask is whether you have the monopoly rights needed to protect future growth. No-one will want to invest in your business if it can easily be copied. Whether you are into protecting your own intellectual property or not, you still must be wary of what your competitors have. Every business has a name, and you need to make sure yours is not too close to someone else’s.

If you sell complex products, you need to know if they infringe your rival’s existing patents. If you actively seek your own rights, then you find out about such potential risks as part of that process. Therefore, engaging with the IP system is not just about securing your own rights. It is also a prudent defensive strategy against being sued. Finally, IP rights can also generate value in other ways, such as through licensing the rights to others. There are also considerable tax benefits, such as Patent Box, which more than halves the corporation tax you pay on revenue generated from the sale of patented products.

So, rather than misquote Wilde and regard imitation as flattery, any business should recognise its own greatness and do whatever is necessary to defend itself from the mediocre. Not just to prevent copying, but because it adds value, increases your situational awareness, can generate an income, and save you tax.

For further information contact Chamber member Baron Warren Redfern at www.bwr-ip.co.uk