Start-ups will face many intellectual property risks and should pay attention to intellectual property layout issues at the beginning of their establishment, mainly trademark strategic layout, patent strategic layout, copyright strategic layout and intellectual property management layout.

1. Patent strategic layout

Patents can provide legal protection for entrepreneurial products, so that they will not be helpless after being copied. In addition, for some technology companies, patents are the basis for their survival; secondly, patents, especially core patents, are the key for companies to obtain venture capital, and they may also obtain patent pledge loans through core patents. The country has issued many regulations on this Corresponding policies; finally, patents can also obtain high licensing fees through licensing or authorization. Therefore, start-ups should focus on patent layout.

1. Maintain novelty

In the Internet age, everything is about practical results. Therefore, entrepreneurs may push their products before they have time to apply for systematic patents on their core inventions and core technologies. Go to the market, or obtain financing, and publish your core products or core ideas on public websites such as crowdfunding. However, the essential point of patent application is "novelty". Once the patent is disclosed, the novelty will be lost, and entrepreneurs will not be able to apply for a patent on their core technology. Therefore, entrepreneurs must pay attention to applying for patents on core technologies before the product is publicly launched to maintain the competitive advantage of their products.

2. Search and analyze before applying for a patent

Before applying for a patent, the patent applicant needs to analyze the relevant technology to determine whether the applied technical solution is novel. Then determine whether the technical solution can be patented. According to a survey by foreign patent agencies, more than 66 invention patents were ultimately unable to be authorized, and the vast majority of them were due to the existence of previously published documents and lack of novelty. If you do not conduct a search before applying for a patent, once the patent is not authorized or the scope of protection is reduced, it will be a waste of application fees, time and energy.

3. Which products can apply for patents

First of all, for the protection of products, it is very necessary for entrepreneurial enterprises to protect their functions as a whole; secondly, for the protection of product functions, Methods, whether it is the software algorithm of the product, the user interaction design, the manufacturing process and technology of the product, the structure or circuit design of the product, you can apply for it. Before applying, you can ask a professional agency to evaluate these patents and determine which patents need to be applied for.

4. A combination application is required

After determining which patented technologies to apply for, start-ups must also conduct technology mining before applying for a patent. When applying for a patent, they cannot only apply for one. Patents must be placed around the technology to form a valuable patent portfolio. Because only a single patent protects a technology, the core technology of the product is easily imitated by competitors. Only when a company also applies for patent-related technologies in its products can it bring greater competitive advantages to its products.

5. How to avoid the risk of leakage

The benefits of patent application are obvious, as it can protect the competitive advantage of the product. However, in addition to the "exclusive" feature, patents also have the "disclosure" feature. Once a patent is made public, it is easy for major competitors to target it and even plagiarize it. How can we avoid competitors' imitation and corresponding patent avoidance? It is recommended to apply in the name of a subsidiary or an individual, so that it is not easy to be targeted by competitors. In addition, when writing patents, you can also pay attention to technical terms and try not to reveal the core algorithms and implementation models.

6. Searches are required before products are launched on the market

Start-ups should better conduct IP enforceability searches on their products before launching them on the market. Conduct technical research before product launch to avoid the risk of infringement. The search that can be carried out is to search and analyze the main technologies in the industry and the core technologies of competitors to ensure that the technology of one's own products does not fall within the scope of patent technology protection of competitors.

Therefore, start-ups should ask an intellectual property management consulting firm to conduct a corresponding technical evaluation of the product before launching the product.

7. Strategies after a patent is infringed

If it is discovered that a product has been infringed, a formal lawyer's letter must be sent to the other party immediately, informing the other party that infringement has occurred, and ordering the other party to stop infringement as soon as possible. . If the other party still refuses to stop the infringement after learning of its infringement, the entrepreneur can initiate legal action. Ask a relevant patent litigation lawyer to help you collect relevant evidence as soon as possible to prepare for future litigation and claims. At the same time, entrepreneurs can also complain to the platform where the infringing products are sold, so that they can take some restrictive measures.

2. Trademark strategic layout

The first step in trademark layout is to register a trademark. Only after the trademark is registered can the company have a carrier for publicity and promotion, so as to avoid accumulating a certain amount of goodwill. Later, the trademark was registered by someone else, and the goodwill became someone else's "wedding dress." Moreover, the cost of trademark issues will get higher and higher as the brand value increases.

1. Precise inquiries should be made before registration

Before applying for a trademark, entrepreneurs need to ask an agency to conduct an accurate inquiry on the registered trademark to quickly and accurately understand the trademark to be registered. situation, to see if there are any circumstances that may affect trademark registration, such as whether a similar trademark has been applied for. If a similar trademark exists, you need to change the trademark as soon as possible and register it as soon as possible to prevent it from being registered by others.

2. Register trademarks in multiple categories

There are 45 major categories of trademark registration. When entrepreneurs register a trademark, they don’t have to be bold and register it in full. They only need to register it according to the company’s requirements. Business categories can be registered in a targeted manner, but because the business may involve multiple levels of business during its operation, it is not appropriate to register a trademark for only one category

3. Trademark registration Monitoring

Because there are 45 categories of trademarks, ordinary start-ups cannot register them all. However, companies can entrust an agency to monitor the trademark categories related to their business to prevent anyone from maliciously attacking the company's trademarks. register.

3. Copyright Strategic Layout

In the Internet age, it is extremely convenient to obtain information, and you can spread the work simply by copying and pasting it. For online resources, start-ups naturally do not want to lose this resource, but simply copying content from the Internet into their own product content and making profits from it can easily involve infringement.

1. Pay attention to the review of publicity content

Companies are also prone to infringe on the copyrights of others in their publicity. In the Internet era, Weibo and WeChat are important platforms for corporate promotion. Many of the pictures forwarded by companies on their official Weibo are unauthorized uses of other people’s copyrighted works. This constitutes an infringement. Compensation after rights protection is not only a matter of funds, but may even affect corporate financing and listing.

2. Pay attention to the use of genuine office software

Because it is very easy to download pirated software on the Internet, many people choose not to use genuine operating software. Moreover, many companies have no awareness of copyright infringement, do not pay attention to this aspect of control, and ignore employees' use of unauthorized software, which may lead to rights protection. If employees are allowed to use pirated software, companies can easily enter a minefield of copyright infringement.

IV. Management Strategic Layout

Although there is no need to set up an intellectual property department at the beginning of the establishment of an enterprise, in order to prevent it from falling into intellectual property disputes, at the beginning of the establishment, the enterprise shall set up an intellectual property department in the drafting of contracts. , it is also very necessary to lay out the intellectual property management in terms of establishing an organizational system.

1. Sign a career achievement vesting agreement with employees

First, the company should sign a career achievement vesting agreement with its employees. This agreement ensures that the results of inventions and creations made by employees during their employment belong to the company. The right to apply for patents and copyrights for inventions and creations belong to the enterprise. If the company does not sign such an agreement with its employees, the employees can keep the results as their own. Many start-ups sometimes fall into such an embarrassing situation: internal employees leave, take away their positions and gain results, and become their competitors.

2. Sign a confidentiality agreement with employees and establish a confidentiality system

Secondly, the company also needs to sign a confidentiality agreement with employees.

Trade secrets are involved in many aspects of an enterprise's operations, whether it is the formula and process of product production, information on product sales channels, product marketing strategies and market sales, all involve trade secrets. The maintenance of trade secrets is extremely important for maintaining a company's competitive advantage. Therefore, enterprises need to establish corresponding management systems to prevent the leakage of trade secrets.