The Importance of Intellectual Property for Startups
At Elm, we hold a monthly gathering that hosts specialists in different fields where they have a specific audience sharing their experiences and creative ideas. We were pleased to host Mr. Mohammed Alomair via webinar, General Director of the Saudi Intellectual Property Rights Company, and the lawyer of Peter Mehravari, an expert on intellectual property affairs in the Middle East and North Africa. He has contributions to combating electronic piracy and works as an employee at the US Embassy in Kuwait.
Intellectual property segments
Intellectual property consists of an idea created by an author and has been legally adapted to represent an added value. It also can be used to promote service, product, art, software data, or industrial designs which guarantee the author’s ownership in a way that protect external illegal attempt.
Types of intellectual property
The types of intellectual property differ according to the added value, the common are patents, name or brand, copyright and industrial designs. The duration of each type differs, for example, the patent rights continues for 20 years, brand for 10 years, and authors’ copyright continues for 50 years after death in most countries. Having reliable intellectual property rights in startups is essential to ensure that it is not used by any external competitors. Protecting those types is called it is intellectual property rights, and people can sell them with a specific price or permit it to an external party.
The use of intellectual property
Startups can use their intellectual property by selling or permitting an external party where the brand, for example, has a specific price depending on its value. Also, many companies use permitting to an external member to increase their revenue and manage expenses. The permitting process is through renting the Brand itself or the intellectual property rights in general, to another company with an agreement of specific duration and price. Permitting the intellectual property is frequently used between companies rather than selling the brand.
General features
The most valuable property right is the Brand
The cost of losing a brand itself exceeds the loss of piece from a product
It is very important to study the targeted market before investing in an Intellectual Property Strategy
A failure to build an Intellectual Property Strategy leads to a startup’s failure
Startups must pay attention to their confidentiality regulations
Beware of legal penalties in case of breaching the Intellectual Property rights of another company
Focus on the mental perception of consumers toward the startup