Leveraging your Intellectual Property: Top tips for businesses looking to grow

January 28, 2025

Leveraging your Intellectual Property: Top tips for businesses looking to grow

---

By Emily Shingler

Intellectual property (IP) remains a vital, often overlooked asset, when it comes to the growth of a business. In this article, our expert Emily, shares her expert insights on how business owners can identify, protect and maximise the value of their IP.

Identify your Business’ IP

Identifying and being able to recognise your IP is the first fundamental step if you are a business owner looking to safeguard your assets. To fully harness your IP, it’s vital to ensure that you are aware of the common (and less commonly known) IP forms.

Well-known IP forms include:

• trade marks
• logos
• domain names and product names

Less well-known IP forms include:

• Copyright in the text on a website
• The right that protects the visual design of a product
• Copyright in customer databases or inventory systems

Top Tip

Ensure you have a detailed record of your IP assets. This could include details on how they were obtained, when and how each asset was created. This will add an extra level of protection if attempting to commercial your IP later down the line.

If possible, register your IP

Where possible, it is important to take the necessary steps to register your IP. This could be through:

• Trade Marks – Protecting your business name, product name or logo which can be done at the UK Intellectual Property Office as a way of protecting your brand and brand assets in the UK.
• Patents – If your business develops an innovative/unique invention or process, consider patent protection.

Securing non registrable IP

Not all IP can be registered, but it is still important to capture and record IP that can’t be registered, such as copyright and business know-how. Copyright occurs automatically in original works (e.g. artistic, musical, dramatic and literary works, including computer programs) and does not require registration in the UK.

Top Tip

Where possible, ensure you document the creation of these assets for evidence of ownership.

Ensure your IP is protected

• Utilise Consultants and Contractors wisely

It is vital to make sure that any consultants and contractors who have assisted with any branded assets (logos, website content and design etc) have transferred the IP rights to you officially.

• Finalise Ownership Matters

UK law typically assigns employee-created IP to the employer, but it is still important to ensure that your employee contracts are water-tight in order to avoid IP disputes and to ensure that all IP is legally assigned to the company.

• Use Symbols

Consider using symbols such as © (copyright) and ™ (trade mark) to signal ownership and deter infringement and unauthorised use of your IP. If your IP rights or confidential information are being infringed by a third party, act quickly and seek legal assistance to avoid limiting your options.

How to Leverage Your IP

Once identified and protected, your IP can be a powerful tool and can be leveraged for business growth in a number of different ways:

• licensing– this would involve receiving a fee from a third-party for permission to use your IP rights
• assigning or transferring ownership of your IP to someone or somewhere else for a lump sum
• during the sale of your business (which includes the IP)
• franchising your business
• using your IP to secure funding

If you would like advice on your intellectual property, contact one of our experts on 02920 829 102 or eshingler@darwingray.com, or using the contact form now.