intellectual-property

Intellectual property

Most IP damage is done quietly and early — by a name adopted without a search, a contractor agreement missing an assignment clause, or a dependency added without reading its license. All three are cheap to prevent and expensive to unwind.

This structures the questions and the recurring failure patterns. IP rights are jurisdictional, deadline-driven and fact-specific — get qualified counsel before adopting a name, filing anything, or responding to a claim.

The four rights protect different things and are not interchangeable

• Trademark protects a name or mark as an indicator of source, within classes of goods and services and within territories. Rights come from use and are strengthened by registration.
• Copyright protects expression, not ideas. It arises automatically on creation; registration matters mainly for what you can recover in a dispute.
• Patent protects an invention, in exchange for publishing it, and is defeated by your own prior public disclosure in many regimes. If patenting is plausible, file before you present, publish, or demonstrate.
• Trade secret protects information whose value depends on being secret, for as long as you actually keep it secret — which requires demonstrable measures, not just intent.

Clear a name before you build on it

A search is cheap; a rebrand after launch is not, and the cost lands after you have printed material, bought domains, and built recognition. Search registered marks in the classes and territories you will operate in, and check for confusingly similar marks rather than exact matches.

Domain availability tells you nothing about trademark risk. Neither does the absence of a company with that exact name.

Establish ownership of work you paid for, in writing, before it starts

This is the most common and most avoidable failure in the whole area.

• Employee work is often owned by the employer by default, but the default varies by jurisdiction and by whether the work relates to the job.
• Contractor and agency work is usually owned by the contractor unless the agreement assigns it. A paid invoice is not an assignment. Logos, code, photography, and copy commissioned without an assignment clause routinely turn out to be licensed rather than owned — discovered during diligence, at the worst possible time.
• Get assignment plus a waiver of moral rights where they apply, and confirm the contractor had the right to assign anything they incorporated.