Why should you care about Intellectual Property ?

Copyright, trademark, patent, … all these terms are related to Intellectual Property - IP. But, what is Intellectual Property? And why is it so important to begin addressing IP concerns in your organization?

The World Intellectual Property Organization defines IP as “creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.”

Organizations and individuals must take the necessary precautions to protect their Intellectual Property and that of their clients.

#What are the different types of IP?

#Copyright

A copyright is a protection of the rights of the author of intellectual value for certain number of years beyond the author’s lifespan. Traditionally, books were the main subject of copyright. Nowadays, copyright protects anything from music to sculpture and video games. However, ideas and processes are not in the scope of copyright. A mathematical algorithm, for instance, can’t be protected using copyright.

#Patent

Patents protect new inventions and processes. If you want a patent, you need to disclose the technical information of your invention to the public. This opens the way for you to prevent other from commercially exploiting your invention.

#Trademark

Trademark is a distinctive sign that distinguishes the identity, products, and services of companies. It can be renewed indefinitely. Can be trademarked words, characters, logos, symbols, sounds, etc.

#Trade secrets

A trade secret is the “secret sauce”, the undisclosed process that only few persons know. There are no declarations to do in order to acquire the right on trade secrets. But, organizations should take preventive measures to protect their trade secrets. The WIPO lists some of these measures: Non-disclosure Agreement, Non-compete Agreement, Robust IT security, access control to sensitive information, etc.

#Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications

Industrial representations of products, whether 3D designs or 2D projections, are also another type of IP. It holder can prevent other from making, selling, or importing articles that are imitations of the original.

Geographical Indication is a distinctive sign tied to a specific location that enjoys a certain reputation.

#Putting all in perspective

Imagine you have developed an app, how will all the types of IP be considered in this scope ?

First of all, the logo of the app is usually protected by a trademark. The source code of the app can be either protected using a patent or a copyright, depending on whether the source code is considered a new invention or not. However, according to WIPO, to qualify for a patent, the product must meet all the patentability requirements. So, consider patent only if you believe that you meet the requirements. Finally, designs and graphical features of your software can be protected using Industrial Designs.

Now that you understand IP types, the question is:

#How to approach IP in your organization?

First of all, there is no police or law enforcement that can protect your Intellectual Property. It is up to you to take the necessary measure to safeguard it.

#IP Strategy

Organizations should elaborate an Intellectual Property strategy. While doing so, it is recommended that you get help from professionals to develop a strategy to best fit your business. WIPO divides it into four (4) parts: Ideation process, product and services development, IP protection, and IP commercialization. More details.

#Policies, Standards, and Agreements

As part of the IP strategy, you should ask yourself some questions regarding the existence of relevant processes and procedures. Few of the most important questions that you should ask yourself are:

• Does the organization have processes and/or procedures for identifying IP assets? If not, consider performing an IP Audit as described below.
• Does the organization have processes and/or procedures for capturing IP assets?
• Does the organization have processes and/or procedures for preventing disclosure of confidential information ? Consider Non-Disclosure Agreement, Information Security, Access Control, Obfuscation, Insider Threat.
• Does the organization have processes and/or procedures in place to make sure it is not infringing IP rights of other entities? Consider Patent Analysis, also known as Freedom to Operate.

Once these questions are addressed, the organization can begin IP protection: once you’ve identified the IP assets, you need to assign to each one a protection (e.g., patent, copyright, etc.). Then you need to prioritize these IP rights.

All of this needs to be reviewed in a regular basis.

Your policies and procedures should be updated to incorporate IP elements. New hires should sign a statement about the the ownership of works or inventions that are produced. You should continue investing in employee’s training. You can add IP statements inside policies including Acceptable Use Policy, Information Security Policy, Data Classification Policy, etc. With the outside world, you can incorporate this requirement in the Terms and Conditions.

#IP Audit

To be able to manage your IP, you need first to know what are the different IP assets that exist within your organization. Hence, performing an IP Audit is necessary. As we saw above, an IP Audit helps with the identification of IP assets. It usually goes through four (4) stages: inventory, ownership, infringement check, and protection plan.

#Information security and access control

Along with the necessary policies and procedures, IP needs to be protected. Information Security plays an important role in ensuring that IP stays within the company. You should invest in the technologies that allow the monitoring and detection of risks to your Intellectual Property. You should pay special attention to access control depending on your organization’s risk appetite. Role-based access control is widely used and remains a balanced solution for most organizations.

#Obfuscation

Other techniques can be used to lock down access from unauthorized entities to your IP assets. For instance, if you have software that is subject to this protection, you can use information hiding techniques like obfuscation to make it impossible to access the source code, while allowing customers to use it.

#Data Rights Management

DRM is a solution that controls the opening, copying, editing and printing of documents. This can be part of a bigger Data Loss Prevention solution.

#Insider threat

Organizations should also carefully consider the risk of insider threat manifesting. Proper policies and procedures should be in place to handle this risk. You may consolidate you exiting employee procedures to make them consistent across the organization. You may emphasize monitoring of network activity for signs of data leakage. The above-mentioned techniques help with this.

#Conclusion

We have seen what Intellectual Property is and its different types. Based on this understanding, organizations can start developing policies and procedures to safeguard their IP information. They should pay attention to the use of the IP of other people as well to avoid lawsuit. We have seen that Information Security offers different tools to protect internal information.

There remains, of course, many aspects of IP that we didn’t cover in this article. Things like patent analysis, Free to Operate, open source software, etc. must be considered as well.

For more information, the website of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) offers a wealth of resources.