How to Protect Business Ideas

If you have a business or product idea and you would like to protect it, there are several ways of going about doing so. You can patent your ideas, trademark your logos and copyright any of your original work. Though these methods are not completely full-proof in making sure that no one steals your ideas, they can certainly help.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Funds for patent and copyright fees and applications

1. Patent your ideas. If you have product idea or business method which you think is worth patenting, contact the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Patents, in essence, give you a monopoly on your patented items. Patents aren't cheap. Filing fees and legal costs involved in patenting a product are normally in the thousands of dollars.
2. Trademark your logos, words and images. If you have a symbol or logo for you company, you may consider having it trademarked. Contact the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a trademark application. There is a filing fee for the application, which can be turned down if the trademark is deemed too generic.
3. Copyright any original work, including literary, musical, dramatic or artistic works. The U.S. Copyright Office handles the registration for a nominal fee.
4. Hide your trade secrets. If you have a formula that needs to be kept secret, the best way to do so is to not tell very many people. Obviously some employees will need to know the formula and such employees should be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

Tips & Warnings

• Contact an attorney if you have any questions about patents or copyrights.
• Do not allow workers access to private company information unless they have signed a disclosure agreement. Keep disclosure agreements in each employees file for quick reference.