You may or may not be responsible for the intellectual property (IP) of the company - but you certainly will be responsible for copyrighting materials, images etc. You will need specialist training if you are!

Trademarks

Registered trademarks® and registered designs add tremendous value to the business, especially when the time comes to sell the company. Trademark infringement can also cost you a lot of lost income.

So, protect your trademarks correctly - a good Intellectual Property (IP) lawyer can help ease you into this process. Once protected, continue to police the market to make sure that no one is infringing your rights, if someone is, then this is where your IP lawyer can help.

Be careful that you do not infringe other companies trademarks - it could cost you a lot of money.

Online and Web Domains

Web domains are equally valuable when they support your brand, sub-brands or product name. Above all make sure that you don't miss the renewal date for your domain - you could lose it and there is little you can do about it after the event!

Unfortunately, theft of copyright words and pictures has now moved on to the web, so it's important that you embed your pictures with code and copyright all of your text as well as your complete website. Even terms and conditions are copied and pasted into other people's websites these days. A good tip is to include a few formatting errors and spelling mistakes in your terms and conditions, as this will help you to prove that they were yours, if they turn up on someone else's site.

Patents

Patents are good if you can achieve one, but they become brilliant if they are really relevant. If they are robust and defensible then they are incredibly valuable to a business. Unfortunately, getting a patent isn't enough. Once you have it, you'll have to police the market and take action quickly when an infringement is spotted.

Again be careful you don't infringe someones patent - it could be expensive.