Intellectual Property normally starts off as an idea in your head and ends up as a creation of the mind. Only when the idea has been formalized into some sort of tangible property can it be said to have any value. Formalization occurs with the granting of a patent or the registration of a design or trademark.
At this stage the intellectual property can be said to have commercial or strategic value. Once Intellectual Property has strategic or commercial value it can be treated in business as an asset on the balance sheet and has a monetary value associated with it.
It doesn’t matter what sort of business you have, it will probably gain strategic value by intellectual property that is generated by either yourself or your employees. It is very important to protect the intellectual property you possess and to exploit its commercial and strategic value in the best way possible.
Intellectual property starts off as an idea in your head, hence the description “intellectual”. In order to qualify for ownership of that property it is first necessary to convert the idea into something that can be seen or touched. If you have an idea for an invention, the idea is worth nothing until it is put into words of print that are acceptable by the Law.
Only when the invention is described in detail in a document called a patent specification can it be registered for a patent. Only when the provisional patent has been granted can the invention be said to have commercial and/or strategic value.
Patents are not the only type of intellectual property to have strategic value. Another type of intellectual property is the trademark. Trademarks are unique symbols that are used in order to identify a particular company from its competitors.
A trademark may be a logo, a design, a slogan, a word or any combination of these. In the case of Coca Cola it may even be the shape of the bottle, something that has been shown to have extreme strategic value over the years. There have been plenty of cases of trademark stealing. One Eastern country has been notorious in the past in stealing trademarks and copying them onto cheaply manufactured clothing, handbags and watches (for example).
Without a doubt the most prevalent form of Intellectual Property is Copyright. Copyright is the one form of intellectual property that does not have to be registered. Once put into print or some other media, copyright automatically becomes yours.
Generally speaking, any creative work by an individual is eligible for copyright protection. It is not enough for the work of art to be still an idea in the author’s head – it must have been recorded in material form. Because it is not registered does not mean that a creation of the mind is not valuable. As an example, take a new novel.
Not only does it have commercial value, but when looking at, for example, the screen rights to the novel, it is easy to see that it also can have great strategic value. Copyright protects several different types of work:
- Literary works (lectures, speeches, reports, poems, novels, biographies)
- Musical works, artistic works (painting, photographs, drawings and sculptures)
- Films
- Sound recordings
- Published editions
- Computer programs
If you need clarification or advice regarding any type of Intellectual Property and its potential strategic value you should contact an Intellectual Property Attorney.
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