Protecting the brainwork

By HEATHER DOUGLAS

Many a great home or small business is based on a particular idea.

The owner usually puts a lot of time and effort - often unpaid in the development stages - into fleshing out the concept, finding materials or suppliers, refining the offer, building a brand and finally, hopefully, making a living out of it.

It's little surprise, then, that when someone else comes along and copies the idea, the small business owner seethes.

A growing awareness in New Zealand of the value of intellectual property, the spread of globalisation, and advances in technology mean protecting intellectual property is more crucial than ever.

But what is intellectual property and how can you go about protecting yours?

In simple terms, intellectual property is a "creation of the mind".

The World Intellectual Property Organisations splits it into two categories: copyright, including literary and artistic works, and industrial property - inventions and patents, trademarks, industrial designs, geographic indications.

For our purposes, we'll also include a business, product or service concept which you may want to keep secret or confidential before launch to maintain a competitive advantage.

Copyright

The definition of copyright includes marketing material, proposals, website copy, speeches, databases and computer programmes - in fact, just about anything you have written down, sketched or created. In the case of ideas, it does not include the concept you have outlined, but it does protect the words or pictures you have used to do so.

Intellectual property

For the small business, this category includes things the owner has invented, concepts he or she has developed, and some aspects of the brand equity that has been built up or may be built up in their business.

Confidential material

You may have a proposal, business idea, product, service, system or some other such concept which would be advantageous to you if your competitors or potential competitors did not know about until it reached a certain stage of development.

Protecting your IP

In general, copyright subsists in any original "work" the moment it is created in material form.

You do not need to register it or even mark it with a symbol for the copyright to take effect.

International agreements mean there is general acceptance of standard copyright regulations throughout much of the world.

Your small business can take simple steps to deter others from using your copyright material, for instance, by placing a symbol, the year and the business name on every original document you create, including on your website.

Digital signatures and other embedded "identifiers" can help protect - and trace - digitally generated work.

Protecting industrial intellectual property usually requires registration of the specific piece you wish to protect, through various mechanisms such as patents, trademarks and registered designs.

Each of these areas of intellectual property is complex, and it is advisable to obtain specialist legal assistance.

There is lots more information, including the cost of registering patents and trademarks, on the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand website (www.iponz.govt.nz).

In cases where you need to share confidential information, you may ask the other party or parties to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

This is a legal document, but unless it has penalty clauses for disclosure which you have the means to enforce, a non-disclosure agreement is frequently regarded as a sign of good faith rather than as a foolproof assurance of confidentiality.

You may be wise to share only necessary information, and this only with people you feel are trustworthy.

* Heather Douglas is the managing director of Home Business New Zealand.

* Home Biz Buzz