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Trade mark registration is the way to own a brand name, and those who are familiar with trademarks likely appreciate the importance of taking steps to ensure their brands are available, and securing them early on when launching new products or services.

In line with such good practice, businesses typically register trademarks well in advance of their new products hitting the market place, and this can have an interesting side effect: speculation.

The trademark registers are public, which means that anyone can commission a search to discover whether someone has already claimed rights to a brand name they are considering before they invest on marketing, graphics, websites and so on. This is a central function of the registers, putting others on notice of your rights, and as part of the registration process trade mark applications are in fact advertised in a journal, giving other businesses the opportunity to object if, for example, a mark applied for is confusingly similar to their...

When I set up Azrights back in 2004/5 it was after a few years bringing up my daughters. I had no existing client base so I built it from the ground up.

Luckily, I discovered a love for entrepreneurship which saw me through the extremely steep learning curve to develop my marketing and business skills. The IP work I’d done before had been for big blue chip companies whose needs and focus are very different to that of SMEs. As SMEs were my target clients. I had to discover their needs, and learn how to communicate to them.  

In due course my ambitions for the business soon had me renting a big office and recruiting a team to fill it.  The only trouble was that the role of managing the office fell on me as the owner of the business. Yet I need flexibility and freedom, and found the need to supervise an office felt like having a job all over again. 

I made the best of it for years although I increasingly felt like a slave to this monster I had...

In my last blog Turning Ideas Into Assets When Branding A New Product Or Service  I explained why awareness of IP is so important when turning your ideas into a commercial concept. Essentially, in the digital economy, intangible assets comprise 70% of the value of many successful businesses. So, IP is a fundamental skillset for every entrepreneur to develop.

You can really see the fundamental importance of IP at play when contrasting JK Rowling’s experience with Gilbert O’Sullivan’s.

When JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, was a penniless, unknown writer, who would have believed she would one day become one of the world’s richest authors? Reportedly her net worth is now £1 billion.

What may not be so well known is that JK Rowling’s wealth is underpinned by intellectual property rights, specifically copyright. In her case copyright was critically important due to how she manifested her ideas – that is, in a book. With the...

We recently launched a survey about intellectual property because I’d noticed that clients and prospective clients often struggled to know what IP is, and what’s involved to identify and protect it.

So, if you’ve ever wondered how to identify IP issues when branding or developing a new product or service, what you need to do, when you need to do it, and what steps are involved to protect your IP, then you may be interested in the results. 75% of entrepreneurs do not know what IP issues arise when implementing new ideas. The rest only had a vague idea. As for when to protect IP, only 9% said that yes they know when to protect IP and how to protect it. The vast majority did not know how or when to protect their IP, and are not confident about how to check whether they may legally use a name.  

Consequently, following these survey results I’ve decided to run a beta version of my upcoming IP Fundamentals e-Course. This will be half the price of the...

Thinking about and taking steps to protect intellectual property is how you turn intangible assets into exclusive property rights.

Depending on the type of IP right in question, the property right lasts for a certain length of time, which may often be renewed on payment of further fees.

Taking the right steps to protect an IP right enables your SME to claim ownership over its intangible assets and exploit them to their maximum potential. In short, IP protection makes intangible assets a bit more tangible.

Different Steps Depending on the Type of IP right

Legal protection involves different steps depending on the type of IP. For example,

1.      Copyright generally involves reviewing the legal agreements you have in place, and making sure your rights are safeguarded.

2.      Trade marks involve choosing names carefully, as only names that can function as trade marks are protectable. Also, if a name is not available then you may not...