Protecting Business Intellectual Property

Being a service-based business, there aren’t that many things that are considered intellectual property that need to be protected. The only thing that I can come up as being closest to needing intellectual property is the copyrights to the business’s website code.  The code is used to create the business’s property and is part of the company’s property. Although not directly belonging to the intellectual property zone, securing a domain name that closely resembles the business name is also a must we are trying to run our service orders through online website. As far as the business model goes, it is a market full of similar service, hence similar business models. Getting a copyright to a business model that everyone knows about is not very beneficial. However, I think the business will have a good number of trade secrets including distribution methods, customer profiles, and advertising methods. As the business aims to gain reputation through advertising agreements with local stores, trade secrets are needed in case of legal problems, protection of confidential information and/or protection against unfair competition in a market where similar services are often large and nationwide.

Trademark is something to be considered for the business’s name and logo. However, as suggested by a guest speaker, John Dimmer, trademarks are often expansive unless you are a big company, who have a lot to gain from mainstream and popular name/logo recognition. For a business model that centers on local exposure and reputation, I think the business does not need its trademark until it’s grown larger in the future and has plan to expand.