All these years that you dedicated to working out on an exclusive idea that you came up with. The trial and error phase you went through hundred times to finally reach the fished product, how would you feel if you find out that someone else has copied your idea and is selling it under their name in the market? Obviously, you will be devastated even with the idea of it.

Your exclusive idea you turned into reality is known as intellectual property. Intellectual property can be your online programs, inventions, your articles or blog posts artwork, manuscripts, website content, business or product names, designs or any of your special creations.

In any case, you will be needing to secure your creation so that no one else can copy your work and enjoy the benefits through your successful work. You might not think that somebody would copy your business name or products but it does happen in reality and fortunately, you will lose your revenue. Moreover, you cannot take legal action against them if you haven’t registered your intellectual property.

If you want to be the only owner of your idea, then follow these 5 steps to protect your intellectual property.

1.   Your idea should be a secret

You really don’t need to blow a trumpet about your successful idea or the reason behind your high profits. Remember there are no friends when it comes to business, you all are competitor looking for an opportunity in the market to succeed. So until unless you have your intellectual property secured, you really don’t need to reveal your idea to anyone.

2.   Understand the Intellectual property laws

The next step is that you read about the prevailing Australian Intellectual Property laws to understand what the terms and conditions are. This would help you in understanding what would be covered in the registration.

3.   Register your intellectual property

There are different types of registration options such as copyright, trademark, and patent.  Remember that you need to register every element of your business, such as your brand name, your logo, your packaging design, your formula and almost everything that exclusively belongs to your business. You need to contact the right authorities click here (national phase entry) who can help you in filing an application for the registration processes. If you have a legal advisor working for you, things will become easier at all national phase entry.

4.   Keep a track at your costs incurred for protecting IP

You will be paying a price for getting intellectual property protection rights. The cost can be a bit higher than you would have thought but it worth because it is protecting your business idea from being copied. For righteous help, you can find IP professionals to guide you through.

5.   Be cautious of infringement

Even after you have registered your intellectual property you would still need to keep an eye on potential parties who may trespass. Once they imitate your business they can ruin your image in the eyes of customers. In case if they are not conducting business as per your standards it will defiantly affect your brand’s reputation.