White Paper

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone: Part 1: Protecting Your Intellectual Property

David Becker, a Partner in the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group, authored the White Paper, "You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone: Part 1: Protecting Your Intellectual Property."

ABOUT THIS WHITE PAPER:

Companies need to be as thoughtful about protecting their soft assets—intellectual property (IP) and human capital—as they are with their hard assets. This paper offers specific strategies for IP. (A second paper in the series covers human capital.)

IP includes four areas. Patents are a government license for a product or process. One of the 10 steps shared to protect your patents is making clear that the company owns its employees’ patentable inventions. 

Trade secrets are useful because you need never disclose them to the public. Among the five tips in this area is ensuring you have a system for retrieving documents and devices from former employees as part of an exit interview.

Trademarks cover signs, designs or expressions. Important among the five steps covered here is that you use the SM and TM marks immediately—even before you apply for the ®.

When it comes to copyrighted materials, the five tips include knowing that you get full value every time you sell something with a copyright. 

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