Protecting your intangibles!

Intangible assets have no physical form, yet can add significant value to a business and its long-term success.

Intangible assets - what are they?
In the context of your business, these are likely to be Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). These include the legal rights to your name, brand, designs, databases, trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets and know-how.

What are they worth?
IPR is notoriously difficult to value, but if you need persuading that it does have value, think about this:

If your competitor were to copy your designs, name or logo, or an ex-employee stole your customer and price list, would you care?

We often find that businesses don't appreciate the value in their IPR until these rights are threatened.  Yet a few simple steps will assist you in not only protecting your IPR, but also in maximising its value to your business. IPR can be exploited in the same way as any other asset.  You may not know for example that registered trade marks can be licensed and earn you royalties; or perhaps used as a mechanism for extracting cash from a subsidiary to pay to another group company.

Do you have any?
You can't protect your intangible assets unless you can identify them, so we would recommend an audit of the IPR in your business. Common intangible assets include product design, systems and processes, publicity materials and customer base/lists. Do you know when your employees create new ideas, systems or methods?  Your employees need to know the value of these to your business and you should have employment contracts designed to protect the intellectual property created by employees.

New ways and new ideas should be documented and your intellectual property fully protected through copyright, trade marks, patents or whatever else is appropriate.

For further details, please contact Kate Legg in our Commercial team on 01384 342130.

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