So, you insure your property and have contracts with suppliers and customers for the sale and purchase of goods but is your business doing enough to protect its ideas, services and products?
Assets that cannot be seen, such as design rights, patents, trademarks and copyrights, have immense value to businesses and should be protected.
They are known as ‘intellectual property’ and there are steps you can take to ensure that you have exclusive control to utilise and exploit these assets for your benefit.
Tom Prince, Commercial Senior Associate at CG Professional says:
“After the transition period, UK legislation has tried to preserve the status quo for example by creating comparable rights (in relation to existing EU rights) upon the end of the transition period and providing for a period of 9 months for businesses, organisations or individuals that have applications for certain EU protections which are ongoing at the end of the transition period to apply in the UK for the same protections. This is particularly important for trademarks and registered design rights.
“Continued reciprocal protection for copyright works between the UK and the EU is assured by the international treaties on copyright. This is independent of the UK’s relationship with the EU so is not addressed in the Withdrawal Agreement.”
If you own any intellectual property rights, we recommend you contact your legal adviser to ensure you will be protected from 1st January 2021.
Disclaimer
The information was correct at time of publishing but may now be out of date.
