Staying vigilant is key to maintaining intellectual property protection

Any instance of compromised intellectual property can severely affect a brand’s success and growth. A company’s market share will dwindle if, say, a given trade secret gets revealed to competitors.

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It’s not even about the long legal battle that confronts a company in cases of IP theft, but the immediate damage of having surrendered your business advantages. The robbery itself will have a negative impact on your image, and the resulting public-knowledge backlash will ruin customer relations, trust, and your all-important flow of revenue. It could take years to fully recover from such an incident, assuming the company doesn’t go bankrupt first.

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Any business should therefore establish methods to maintain vigilance, from implementing clear non-disclosure agreements, conducting regular seminars on IP protection, and closely monitoring competitors. It can be very time-consuming and arduous to keep a close eye on competing brands, but it’s important to do so, nonetheless. The good news is that there are programs constantly examining internet postings for possible infringements.

More importantly, businesses should consult with intellectual property lawyers and agents to further streamline the process. It’s always better to get professional help from attorneys trained in IP law, as they will prove vital both in ensuring better infringement safeguards and in case legal implications arise. Having a dedicated team of IP experts backing you up will likewise give you the peace of mind to focus on your business’ growth.

MEM Concessions LLC was founded by distinguished IP attorney Michael E. Melton, author of numerous published legal articles in the field of Intellectual Property. For more on the company and Mr. Melton, visit this website.

What constitutes intellectual property infringement?

An individual or organization can face or encounter a violation of its intellectual property rights, or infringement regarding its patents, copyright and trademarks, and trade secrets.  In general terms, IP infringement pertains to any breach of IP rights.

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IP infringement can involve varying types of violations that include counterfeiting and piracy.  Counterfeiting is the practice of imitating genuine goods with the purpose of taking advantage of the superior value of the imitated product.  Piracy, on the other hand, is the unauthorized use, copying, reproduction, and/or distribution of materials that are protected by IP rights.

Among the most commonly committed types of IP infringement is copyright infringement, which is the use of works protected by copyright law without the copyright holder’s permission.  This usually violates the exclusive rights that the copyright holder has, such as the right to reproduce, display, distribute, and perform the work or create derivatives.

Trademark infringement is just as familiar.  Here, a trademark owner’s exclusive rights are violated, where the infringer uses a trademark that’s either identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another, on products and services identical or similar to those which the trademark registration covers.

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Patent infringement uses or sells a patented invention without the patent holder’s permission, which is usually granted in the form of a license.  A patented invention and its scope are governed by the claims of the issued patent, always filed and documented with the USPTO.

Note, however, that there are non-infringing types of works.  A work, to qualify for copyright protection, should be an expression – not an idea – with a level of originality and presented in a fixed medium.  The idea per se isn’t protected, so a copy of another person’s original idea isn’t infringing unless the unique expression of the idea is copied.  It’s important to seek legal advice or professional expertise on the matter to protect one’s IP rights and know its limitations. 

MEM Concessions LLC is founded by Michael E. Melton, who has enjoyed a distinguished career as an Intellectual Property attorney and currently is a partner with Norris & Melton P.L.L.C located in Washington, DC. For similar reads, visit this page.

The crippling effects of intellectual property theft

Intellectual property theft is no laughing matter: it costs businesses billions of dollars every year and robs the nation itself of jobs and tax revenues. Intellectual property theft involves robbing people or organizations of their inventions, ideas, and creative expressions, which can range from software to proprietary parts to trade secrets.

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With the rise of more sophisticated digital technologies and Internet file sharing networks, IP theft is a serious threat requiring proactive attention, and should not be an afterthought. Laws can be quite lax and enforcement can be very difficult, and the infringement hurts not just businesses but also the health and safety of consumers. Counterfeit cars, aircraft, and electronics, for instance, can be dangerous for public use.

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Compared with more familiar crimes such as credit card theft, IP cyber theft can be tougher to address and garners less public attention. Unlike the direct impact of more common cybercrimes, its ramifications are harder to understand.  These include fewer upfront direct costs but potential effects that might balloon in months and years.  Losing IP, for one, can lead to forfeiture of first-to-market advantage, loss of profitability, and losing entire lines of business to counterfeiters or competitors.

Espionage activities are also widely used in IP theft, to a scale that triggers a national security emergency. Cyber espionage can cost U.S. companies hundreds of billions of dollars in losses as well as over 2 million lost jobs.

Many businesses today create and own staggering volumes of intellectual property. While its value is hard to quantify, IP is usually a critical source of competitive advantage, and today it’s a handy target for bad elements. 

MEM Concessions LLC is founded by Michael E. Melton, who has enjoyed a distinguished career as an Intellectual Property attorney and is a partner at Norris & Melton P.L.L.C located in Washington, DC. Learn more about his practice areas on this page.