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What every marketer should know about IP

Behind great products, services and marketing campaigns are valuable ideas -- intellectual property (IP) -- which represent a company's core assets such as product names, marketing positioning, sales promotions, press releases, etc.

Intellectual Property -- the property of ideas, their expressions, and embodiments -- encompasses five main areas of law and business, and each one offers a unique and original standard of legal protection that should be practiced to protect these valuable assets.

  1. Trade Secrets/Proprietary Information -- Any unpublished commercial ideas should be kept secret or confidential, protected by locked file drawers and confidentiality agreements until they are legally published, e.g. all unpublished client pitches, storyboards, marketing plans, execution strategies.
  2. Copyright -- This represents the written, sound, and visual expression as well as the sculptural embodiment of literary, artistic, and computer expressions such as software programs. Advertising print ads, commercials, and jingles are prime copyrighted marketing assets.
  3. Patent -- Marketing methods embodied in a software program can be registered as either provisional or regular patent application subject to review and acceptance by the Patent Office. Priceline.com is a prime example of software patenting.
  4. Trademarks -- These logos, symbols, and name-marks are the prime assets for product and service brands and packaging. Advertising slogans, product packaging, brand names, trade dress, interior office designs, and now publicity rights are prime trademarked assets.
  5. Contract Created IP Rights -- Freedom of contract often means you can be creative in how you build and create your Intellectual Property by legislating its use and development among your partners, licensors, vendors, employees, and independent contractors.

 

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