You may have heard a case of two companies struggling over endless court battles seeking to stop one another from implementing an idea. The reason —one company is using a competitor’s ideas to make their products. Legally, there’s no crime in implementing one’s idea to your benefit. However, it's against intellectual property rights if the idea is legally protected and owned.

That's what intellectual property rights are all about. Irrespective of your business niche, protecting your inventions becomes a must if you invest a lot in research and development. Currently, copyrighting remains one of the most viable ways that affords you exclusive rights over any invention you make. This way, you can stay assured no one will steal your idea and implement it to their benefit.

The Idea behind Business Patenting

The whole idea behind copyrighting is to make the invention yours. If you have a business start-up that’s only entering the market for the first time, then you need to bear the cost of a patent for all the unique products you have. This protects your business from the big companies that prey on your idea and use their financial muscle to implement it better.

If well utilized, copyrights can provide powerful leverage for your start-up. And whereas many people think they only protect big and established tech firms, your new start-up also stands to benefit from the added value the copyright provides to a brand. Here are some of the reasons why you should acquire copyright rights for your new start-up ideas.

1. It Reduces Competition

If you have a copyright covering a given innovation in whichever industry, chances are your potential competitors will have to seek an alternative route for competition. In most cases, the copyright will force them to trade with caution, lest they infringe on your copyrights. They might even consider lowering their product quality to remain competitive in the market.

And in the case where they want to develop a competing product, they'll have to use more resources dealing with the risk of infringing your copyright. As a business start-up, copyrights are a means for maximizing your competitive advantage within your industry over all your competitors.

2. Better Acquisition Offers and External Investment

As an entrepreneur, finding yourself in a position where your start-up is no longer viable to operate independently is a common experience. You only have two options when it happens—sell the business or merge with an existing larger company.

However, you need commercially attractive assets such as intellectual property rights to efficiently make either of the two sail through. Strong copyright rights are valuable assets that make a start-up more commercially viable to potential buyers or investors.

Companies seeking to enter into a merger with your start-up will see them as an assurance of returns on their outlay. They may even be more interested in acquiring your IP portfolio than the business itself. This way, they know that earnings from all the successful products won't be lost to market copycats. In addition, the extended period of exclusivity is sufficient for any of their investment to be regained.

3. Safeguards Your Invention

If your business has a copyright granted for a given invention, all other parties are prohibited from mimicking or exploiting it. So, they can't benefit from the time, resources, and labor invested in researching and developing the product.

Regardless of the invention, a copyright will be your only weapon against being bullied by more established enterprises into giving up your idea. And if this innovation meets all the standards for acquiring intellectual property rights, a copyright will protect it for up to 20 years and whichever jurisdiction you want.

The rights make you untouchable and in complete control of what to offer to the market. The copyrights also safeguard everything you do with your invention in a clear monopoly embodied in the services and products you offer.

4. Patenting is a Revenue Source by Itself

Besides affording you the gold standard of IP protection, copyrights are also potential revenue sources for your business start-ups. They can help your start-up secure financing and significantly reduce its cost of capital. Some of the world's biggest companies are already using this copyright-secured financing to boost their revenues and help grow their brands.

The biggest challenge, however, is whether your invention is decent enough to warrant resource mobilization. If it is, finding the necessary funds for your future projects should be much easier from copyright licensing than other forms of business financing.

In the case of securing financing from financial institutions, they'll gladly lower the cost of financing if copyrights support the loan. This perfectly makes sense, given the high value accorded to intellectual rights. And unlike other business assets, which you easily lose, copyrights are often given for 20 years. This is enough time to repay the loan.

However, you should also weigh your options before entering into any financing agreement with a given company or bank. For instance, first, review your long-term business goals and use that to get the best possible deal. Also, remember that copyrights only serve in the country where you’ve acquired them.

5. Controlled Development and Deployment of Your Technology

Patents typically protect your invention for 20 years before expiring. This is enough time to define a long-term business model without being bothered by competition. Similarly, it affords you ample flexibility and time to validate and optimize your product for any of your target markets.

For instance, patents eliminate the urgency to get ahead of the competition. The protection grants you a certain level of assurance that, even if your competitor has developed a similar product, you have the edge over them. You also enjoy all the market security to develop a more effective long-term business strategy ahead of everyone else.

Bottom Line

Patenting is one of the leading means businesses are currently leveraging to get ahead of their competition. The added benefit of security, market control, and unlimited financing options makes intellectual property rights valuable assets to the business.