12.6 Intellectual Property

EnterpRISEing Youth 12 – Giving It Life 12.6 Intellectual Property

Your business might include new inventions, original software or apps, new technologies, unique designs or processes, your business name and logo, or other examples of what are known as “intellectual assets” or intellectual property (IP). Often these are things that you can’t actually see or physically hold in your hand, which is why they’re called “intangible assets.” They’re still yours and you need to protect them, just like you would a physical asset. This is especially important as more and more businesses become knowledge rather than product based.

You can protect your IP in Canada by submitting an application for a trademark, a patent, an industrial design, or copyright.

Trademarks

Trademarks are used to protect a single design, word, or sound, or a combination of these, that’s used to differentiate the services or products of one organization or person from another. For example, this could be your business logo or slogan, but things like catchphrases have also been trademarked. Famous trademarked names include Microsoft, Google, and Robert Downey Jr. (yes, there are actually lots of celebrity names and individual’s names registered!). Quite often we use words that are trademarked in common speech, like Bubble Wrap®, Ping-Pong®, and Popsicle®. In Canada, if you register a trademark, it’s protected by law so others can’t use or misuse it, and you have exclusive rights to it for 15 years, after which you can renew your registration.

Copyright

Copyright refers to the exclusive legal right to publish, produce, reproduce, or perform an original musical, artistic, dramatic, or literary work. Usually whomever has created the work is the copyright owner, but employers might have copyright for works by employees unless there’s a specific agreement set up. Copyright includes the right to perform the work (or a large part of it). If the work isn’t published, copyright also covers the right to publish the work or a substantial piece of it.

When you own the copyright to something, this means you’re in control of how it’s used. If someone wants to use your work, they have to pay you for it or get your permission to use it. When you create something in Canada or if the author is a Canadian citizen, then it’s automatically protected as soon as you create it. However, you can also register a copyright, which means you get issued a certificate from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. The certificate can be used as evidence in court if you catch someone using your work. Copyright in Canada exists for your lifetime plus 50 years after your death. After that, the work becomes public domain and anyone can use it. It’s worth noting that if you do creative work for someone (e.g., say you create a logo for them), then you hold the copyright for that work, unless otherwise specified in your contract.

Patents

Patents protect things like inventions, devices, technologies, and methods of doing things. They also apply to new or useful improvements to recognized products or processes. If you get a patent, that means you have the exclusive right to sell, make, and use what you’ve patented, as long as you’re the first applicant to file for a patent. You can also sell or license patents or use them as assets to attract potential investors. Your patent is legally protected and lasts for 20 years from when you’ve filed the patent. However, the protection of your patent only applies in the country or region that gave you the patent. Famous patents include the telephone, the computer mouse, and GoPro’s special system for attaching cameras to users.

Industrial Designs

Industrial design refers to the distinctive visual features of a product that give that product an edge over the competition. It can include the shape, pattern, or decoration of a product. If your business focuses on creating distinctive-looking products, then it’s important to protect your industrial designs by registering them. Designs have to be unique and can’t be similar to any other kind of designs. In Canada, once registered, you have the exclusive, legally enforceable rights to the design for up to 10 years. You can also sell your rights or license others to sell, use, or make your designs. Some examples might include the shape of a drink bottle, the decoration on a shirt, or the shape of a computer.

Trade Secrets

Think about the Coca-Cola formula. For over 100 years, this has been a secret. Because it has such enormous business value, Coca-Cola has been very careful to make sure it’s kept confidential. This is what’s known as a trade secret. The two keywords in the Coca-Cola example are “value” and “secret.” Trade secrets include valuable business information that gets its value from being a secret. Along with product ingredients, trade secrets can also include client lists, customer profiles, sales methods, and special formulas. Unlike patents, for example, there’s actually no formal way to protect trade secrets in terms of an IP process, so trade secrets are usually kept confidential through non-disclosure/confidentiality agreements, encryption, password protection, confidentiality clauses, or physical locks and keys.

You want to make sure that you protect yourself and the value of your business assets – tangible or intangible – so think carefully about whether you need to apply for a patent, register a trademark, etc. Just note that there is usually a registration fee involved.

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