Protecting your most valuable asset: intellectual property

As a company grows, protecting its intellectual property could be key to its valuation. We present some basics about trademarks, patents, copyrights, and contracts. Building an organization, managing and motivating people, and finding customers and investors are all difficult and important. But the most important thing you could do for your new-economy company is to protect your intellectual property. Without hard assets, protected intellectual property could ultimately determine your company's valuation and even prevent a competitor from entering the same market. Companies create intellectual property daily, and the ability to protect it directly affects its value. There are four main types of intellectual property to consider protecting: trademarks and service marks; copyrights; patents; and trade secrets. We also discuss contractual protections that apply to employing IT staffers, consultants, and subcontractors.