UK: What are some key steps I can take to protect my UK company's intellectual property during the early stages of my company's lifecycle?

The key steps a UK company may take to identify and protect intellectual property ("IP") assets often depend on a host of factors, such as the company's industry, business model, product roadmap, available resources and the value or importance of IP to its business. That said, virtually all companies that have potentially valuable IP can take certain baseline steps to protect those assets, including the following:

• Ensuring that founders, employees, consultants, advisors and any other third party that creates or develops IP for the company signs a written agreement with the company that assigns to the company all rights to the IP created for the company, and that binds the counterparty to customary confidentiality obligations. 
• Taking steps to protect the company's confidential information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure (e.g., entering into nondisclosure agreements before disclosing confidential information outside the company and implementing technical, physical and administrative procedures to limit access to confidential information). 
• Having legal advisors prepare template agreements that govern use of the company's proprietary technology by customers (e.g., template customer agreements or terms of service). 
• Considering whether to apply for patent or trade mark protection with the relevant governmental authorities for certain key inventions and trade marks.
• Assessing the terms under which key third party IP is licensed to the company both to ensure compliance with those terms and to ensure use of the licensed technology will not negatively impact or encumber the company's proprietary IP assets.
• Running public/desktop searches on any proposed business, product or trade names to check whether they are already in use by companies operating in similar sectors or offering similar products and services.

Learn More: 

• UK Founder Series: Protecting Your Ideas
• UK Founder Series: Setting Up Your Private Limited Company
• Trade Mark Services Information

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