Protecting Your Business’ Intellectual Property In Florida: What to Do When Threatened

Protecting Your Business’ Intellectual Property In Florida: What to Do When Threatened

The threat to intellectual property is higher today than it has ever been. Unscrupulous attacks are all over the internet, increasing the risk of threats to business ideas and concepts. Meanwhile, business owners are more familiar with protecting their physical property and assets than their intellectual property.

In this article, we will discuss what your business’s intellectual property is and why protecting it is important. Whether your business deals in ideas or even only products in Florida, you most likely have intellectual property that needs to be protected.

Understanding Your Business’ Intellectual Property

Uncertainty about a business’s intellectual property is completely normal; even the most successful businesses often do not. Most businesses have an unclear idea of what exactly intellectual property comprises, increasing the threat they face.

Intellectual property can be industrial or artistic/copyright property and exists in practically any business-related concept or information. Industrial intellectual property refers to trademarked technology, inventions, and industrial designs, among other concepts. On the other hand, artistic or copyright intellectual property refers to literary works, broadcast programs, art, and images.

Even a set of notes jotted on a napkin during a business lunch date, you have intellectual property. Therefore, it is at risk of being hijacked, mainly if it originates from the individual, an organization, a company, or another entity. Your business’s intellectual property needs protection from unscrupulous attacks, including copyrights, patents, and trademarks.

Visible Threats to Intellectual Property: Likely Suspects

The easiest way to know the likely people who can attack your business’s intellectual property is by checking the FBI’s website. It contains a great deal of information about the risks posed to the intellectual properties of businesses. You will be surprised to find that the threats you face are not from individuals alone but also from foreign nations.

Meanwhile, the vitality of protecting your intellectual property cannot be overemphasized, considering the amount of data circulating the globe. As a business owner, you are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the integrity of your business’s intellectual property from the following:

• Opportunists looking to put your intellectual property up for sale
• Industry rivals, both domestic and foreign
• Members of organized crime
• Startups, including domestic as well as foreign
• Former or even current employees who have a bone or two to pick with you
• Foreign intelligence operatives or spies

What to Do When Your Intellectual Property Faces Threats

The first and most urgent thing to do when you suspect a threat to your intellectual property is to contact law enforcement. Meanwhile, if the threat has already become a hatched plan, the need to contact law enforcement is much more urgent. You might also want to speak to an attorney who knows how intellectual property works.

However, threats to intellectual property are best prevented and tackled. That is, you are better off avoiding the threats altogether than looking for ways to deal with them after they have happened. You can avoid the threats by frequently reviewing your security measures and using software like firewalls.

Also, avoid sharing trade secrets across the Internet, train all your personnel accordingly, and implement quality security policies. Train your administrators to safeguard laptops, tablets, and other computer hardware that contain valuable data.

Conclusion

“Intellectual property protection in Florida might be like a hard nut to crack, but it is quite simple,” says intellectual property attorney Lorri Lomnitzer of The Lomnitzer Law Firm, P.A. By ensuring you adopt the highest security measures possible, you can protect your business’s intellectual property from unscrupulous entities all over the internet.