How to Protect Your Technology in a Digital Society
Protection of technology and other intellectual property is growing increasingly difficult as digital mediums expand. The ease of creating unauthorized duplicates of digital technology fuels the expansion of copyright violation and digital theft, and the desire to establish legal protections for technology is abundant. While it is almost impossible to completely protect your technology, taking steps to discourage misappropriation and collect damages from offenders will help to shield your intellectual property.
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Instructions
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Copyright, patent or trademark your technology. Choosing the right device to protect your works can be difficult, so consult an experienced intellectual property attorney to determine the best vehicle for protection.
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Draft nondisclosure agreements for anyone who comes in contact with your technology. Nondisclosure agreements will remind your employees that they should not be sharing your trade secrets with anyone else, and provides an avenue for you to collect damages from someone who shares your secrets with a competitor.
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Continue to innovate your technology and avoid leaving it to stagnate for long periods. Nondisclosure and non-compete arguments are only valid for limited amounts of time, and competitors will be attempting to reverse engineer your technology to duplicate it or make it better. Constant innovation will allow you to stay ahead of the curve and prevent your technology from being copied.
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Put signatures in your technology that will make it easier to identify theft. For instance, if you are writing a program that outlines bus schedules, include a very specific but very minor inaccuracy so that it is easier to prove that another bus schedule program that also includes that inaccuracy has misappropriated your programming.
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Keep a log that outlines the growth and development of your intellectual property. If you do suspect that a competitor has misappropriated your idea, it is helpful to present your process of development in court. If your competitor cannot produce a similar log, it will provide circumstantial evidence that your competitor copied your design without actually developing it independently.
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Keep track of who has access to your intellectual property. For instance, if you showed your idea to potential investors, write a log of the individuals present, the location of the meeting and the meeting's date. This way you can prove that the person had access to your technology at a specific time before the development of their similar technology.
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Tips & Warnings
An intellectual property attorney is invaluable in protecting your technology. While the cost of an attorney may be substantial, the wasted cost in developing stolen technology far outweighs this expense.
