How Does Intellectual Property Affect Your Business

In today’s knowledge economy, intellectual property (copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets) can play a tremendous role in the success of a small or medium-sized business. By gaining a better understanding of trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, and patents, and how they affect your business, you can effectively manage these tools and use them to your advantage.

Trademarks help you protect the name of your business, products and services. Perhaps the most important asset of any business is its name. Your business name and that of your products or services establish your reputation. Therefore, it is important to protect that name and reputation by applying for trademarks and registering them with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Trade secrets also play an important role in your business. Trade secrets include secret recipes, formulas, or manners in which you conduct your business. For someone owning a bakery or manufacturing a certain type of food, the recipe you use should be kept secret in order to ensure that no one can replicate your products. A trade secret can also be process that saves money over known processes.

Copyrights and patents generally relate to creations of the mind. Those in the service businesses will probably not require a patent or a copyright to do business, nor should they worry about the copyrights and patents of another. On the other hand, those who create or develop products for manufacture or sale will probably need to consider obtaining copyrights to protect their writings or other expressions of ideas and patents to protect and enforce their rights to manufacture, use or sell an improved product or service.

Let’s look at Richmond-based company, Reynolds Metals Company (recently acquired by ALCOA). The company, now commonly known for its food storage supplies and containers, was founded in 1919 by R.S. Reynolds, as tin foil supplier for cigarette and candy companies. Shortly after its creation, the company turned its sights towards using thin aluminum foil for food storage. By 1926, Reynolds Metals was producing the first high-speed, gravure-printed foil, aluminum bottle labels, heat-sealed foil bags for foods and foil-laminated building insulation paper. Since then, the company has invented countless food storage devices and has become a household name in America. It currently holds hundreds patents and has a plethora of trademarks and trade secrets. These patents, trademarks, and trade secrets protect Reynolds® brand innovations. Without doubt these patents, trademarks, and trade secrets have aided Reynolds in the success in establishing itself and positioning it among America’s successful companies.