Business Ideas and Intellectual Property

Like with trade secrets, business ideas and intellectual property are just as important to protect, but especially in the case of intellectual property, you have more legal avenues to protect it than trade secrets.
First, before learning how to protect intellectual properties you need to know exactly what intellectual properties are. Intellectual property basically refers to either scientific or mathematical formulas, hypotheses and sketches that can lead to the development of a particular product, drug, computer program or chemical solutions. Intellectual property can also be an invention.

There are many new kinds of gadgets out there that require some kind of intellect to create. For example, if you have invented a particular gadget that can simplify a particular task or chore in life, that is an intellectual property. Good examples include the Apple iPod and Bluetooth accessories. Now, because these inventions were thought out and developed by various different individuals, the recipes for these gadgets and the formulas for chemicals used in a variety of industries are not of the public domain. If they were of the public domain, then the inventors of these products and the entrepreneurs who produce them would not be making their millions off them.

The way that intellectual properties are protected is by applying for a patent. A patent is available in almost all of the countries in the world, but in the United States patents need to be applied for with the United States Patent Office. Having a patent in your name is the best way to protect your intellectual property.

The only way a corporation can get your intellectual property once it is patented is for you to legally sell the patent to that particular corporate entity. Having a patent for your intellectual property is very similar to having a copyright for your written material.