Status Check on Your IP New Year's Resolutions

On January 3 of this year, I posted an article about the need for businesses to make a New Year's Resolution to check into their Intellectual Property. Now that more than four months have past since that time, I thought that it would be helpful to post a follow-up "reminder."

Since January 3, did you:

-stop and think about your Intellectual Property ("IP")?

-Check to see if your trademark(s) have been registered with either your state's Department of Corporations or the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

-Make a list of information you consider to be a "trade secret" such as customer lists, product formulas, and the like. Evaluate whether your business is in fact treating such information as a "trade secret." For instance, do only key employees have access to this information? Did your business actually compile this information for a business advantage? Would the public dissemination of this information cause injury (financial or otherwise) to your business?

-Insist that key employees sign a non-disclosure agreement which will aid in protecting unauthorized dissemination of your "trade secrets."

-Insist that key employees also sign a non-compete agreeement which will insure that upon leaving your business that the ex-employee can not work for a competitor within a reasonable geographic radius and for approximately two (2) years.

-Inform/remind any employee that creates content for your business (photos, brochures, software, etc...) that such works are works made for hire and as such immediately become the property of your business. Since the work(s) was created within the time and scope of employment, the employee should have no misunderstanding as to the true owner of the copyright in such work(s).

-call an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law before launching a new product or service with a new trademark?

Running a business takes perserverence and determination. If you made IP resolutions in January, take a moment to take inventory of those resolutions. If you have begun the process, great. If not, it's not to late.