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Ways to Protect Your Product

You have spent years testing and developing — and now you have the perfect product. That product and any methods used to create it are your intellectual property. As the inventor of that product, you want to protect it from theft — whether it’s competing companies, employees or other companies you’re selling it to. But, how do you protect your product?

Does It Qualify for a Patent?Not all products qualify for a patent, but if yours is patentable, you need to immediately file for a provisional patent. Intellectual property attorneys can handle patent applications for you or you can complete it yourself. But, before you file for a patent, conduct a patent search to make sure no one has patented a similar product.

Can You Use a Non-Disclosure?There are times a product cannot be patented, but that does not mean you are out of options. A non-disclosure or NDA can protect your product against customers, vendors and employees stealing it. If the signer of that NDA breaks their agreement, you can sue them for associated damages. Some things your intellectual property attorneys will include in the NDA are:

What is considered “confidential” and what is not. This must be defined in order for your NDA to be valid.

Obligations of each party entering into the agreement. It should be specified what is confidential, how it must be protected, and what parties must do to protect that information. For example, an NDA may require employees to only send files with trade secrets via a secure server. You should also have specific information as to how IP will be handled with third parties.

Consequences of breaching the NDA. This should be very clear and tell the signers what happens if they breach their NDA.

Should You Hire Intellectual Property Attorneys?Any time you are trying to protect your invention, you should hire an attorney. Intellectual property attorneys understand patents, but also understand what is required to create a solid non-disclosure agreement. An attorney can also help in the event someone does use your product without your permission or use trade secrets to develop a competing company.

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