Value of Intellectual Property - Brands, Patents, & Trademarks
Thank you to everyone for attending our insightful panel discussion with Jane Toohey, Director at Outsource2Us marketing & design; Zachary Pagliano, Associate at Redchip Lawyers; and Clinton Priddle, Partner, Kings Patents & Trademark Attorneys on the ‘Value of Intellectual Property – Brands, Patents & Trademarks’.
The discussion focused on how to approach branding, intellectual property, trademarks, patents and valuations for your business. The panel highlighted the significant impact on your business and future wealth if you don’t get it right at the beginning and correctly protect your Intellectual Property and the potential consequences it may have on the value and saleability of your business. It’s about appropriately managing resources and effort to effectively manage business risk and protect the value of your business in those very early stages, when people tend to make some drastic mistakes. Those mistakes often happen because people don’t think to consult an accountant, lawyer, trademark professional, patent attorney or marketing professional at the beginning or in the right order.
Every brand has to start somewhere, which is why it is critical to protect your brand(s) thoroughly. Our discussion looked at the importance of trademarking your logo, as your logo is a large part of your brand and corporate identity, and distinguishes your business from its competitors. The panel shared some of the most common mistakes they see when people do not set up their brand, patents and trademarks correctly. From choosing a bad business/brand name, to never having trademarked your business name over many years of doing business. Assuming that since you made up a word or logo that you own it and trademark registration is unnecessary is dangerous, as is not monitoring and enforcing your trademark. The table below outlines what you need to consider when trademarking.
The discussion also looked at the important factors for businesses to understand about patents. Patents provide protection for inventions that are new, useful and non-obvious, giving the owner the exclusive right to control the sale or the use of the invention. Inventions don’t need to be complex or revolutionary and even if a competitor improves the invention, they may still be required to license or purchase your original patent before they can exploit the improvement. Unlike copyright, patents are not granted automatically. A formal patent application must be lodged, and it is essential the invention is not disclosed to the market before the patent is approved. These patents can last up to 20 years.
There has been a steady growth of patent filings which gives optimism for the long-term. The below data highlights the percentage of patents filed around the world. Australia has a long way to go!
Determining the value of intellectual property can be a challenging process, but obtaining an informed valuation can provide significant benefit to your business. Attributing a reasonable valuation to your intellectual property, if not currently accounted for, may increase the book value of your business and provide you with greater financing opportunities. For new businesses, possessing or applying for formal intellectual property rights correlates with a greater amount of outside investment, and an informed valuation of these assets can help you communicate the value to investors. We recently shared an article on ‘Top 10 tips for valuing intellectual property’ that gives some good insights to check if your business is on track.
For the full event recording please contact us.
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Yours Sincerely,
Leon Stephan
Managing Partner
