Do You Need an Intellectual Property Consultant?

You Need an Intellectual Property Consultant

You need an Intellectual Property consultant whenever you are thinking about entering the marketplace with a new idea.

If you’re starting a new business, you need to consider whether the name you want to use is already being used. You also need to think about if an associated domain name is available and if the name is protectible as a trademark. Also, ask yourself how you want to portray your image.

If you are developing new technology, an Intellectual Property consultant can:

• tell you how to document the idea
• how to maintain confidentiality
• how to properly disclose it to others
• what you need to do to further develop the idea
• how to avoid infringing on other people’s ideas
• where to go for funding
• how to license technology

Whether you are starting a new business venture or expanding your business, a specialist in Intellectual Property can be helpful. He or she can explain what you need to file a patent application and what to do if you have joint inventors. Do you know the difference between utility patents, design patents and plant patents? Your Intellectual Property consultant will.

The Intellectual Property consultant can tell you whether your idea would be better protected by filing a Copyright registration than by filing a patent. Generally, Copyright protects a particular expression of an idea, while patents protect all reasonably foreseeable expressions of an idea.

Perhaps the best use of an Intellectual Property consultant is for planning out a comprehensive strategy for how to commercialize an idea with the best mix of market exposure with protections in place, which can be tricky in some cases. Often the timing is crucial.

You can find an experienced Intellectual Property consultant at IntellectualPropertyUmbrella.com.