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Is Your IP Worth Protecting?

By Dianne R. Sagner
November 01, 2003

Corporate counsel often relay their client's concerns about the importance of zealously protecting their company's Intellectual Property (IP), but do these clients appreciate what that entails or appreciate some of the pitfalls? Consider a few questions: If your company creates something, does it own it? If it owns it, is it protectable and, if protectable, what is the cost to fully protect it? Where should it be protected? Does it have commercial value?

The purpose here is to raise the issues that address these questions and which will provide counsel some of the information needed to take a more measured approach when considering their company's IP. This summary is broad, and the focus is on copyrights, because of their prevalence.

Corporate executives often assume that their company's “property” is truly IP and has inherent value, simply because it was created and owned by the company or is marked as “proprietary and confidential”. Many times this “property” is not truly IP, and even if it is, has minimal ' if any ' commercial value. Also, the efforts to protect it can limit the commercial opportunities of your company and divert the scarce resources and budget available to in-house counsel for more pressing issues.

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