One of the best ways to protect your IP Right is to get it registered with the government office. However, what exactly do you gain by registering your property? Are the additional rights worth the investment of time and money?  or can they be safely skipped?

How to register for a copyright and why?

Under U.S Law, copyright protection applies from the moment the work is created, without any requirement of registration. However, registering your work with the library of Congress Copyright Service is a good idea for several reasons. Registration allows you to bring a suit for copyright infringement in federal court in a much larger number of situations. It is also established evidence of facts included in the registration certificate as long as registered the work within five years of its first publication. It is also worth noting that without a registration you cannot collect statutory damages or attorney fees for copyright infringement.

How to register a Trademark and Why?

While an unregistered trademark is protected under common law and the Lanham act, registering them confers several exclusive rights. You may b able to bring a trademark suit to a federal court in a much larger number of a situation if the trademark has been registered. Your trademark is assumed to be valid as long as it is registered. The most important benefit, however, is that the registration grants you nationwide trademark right, whereas an unregistered trademark can only be enforced locally.

How to Register for Patent and Why?

While registering a patent can be expensive, time-consuming process, owning a patent provides many exclusive rights, though for a limited time. The most important of those is the exclusive right, to use, sell otherwise distributed the patented invention, plant or design. These right can be enforced against the parties infringing upon your patent, though their benefits only apply if a patent is actually granted. Unlike copyright or trademark, an invention isn’t protected by law before a patent is granted unless it is protected by the owner or inventor.

IP rights are valuable assets for your business, possibly among most important, it possesses.

Your IP right can:

  • Set your business apart from competitors
  • Be sold or licensed providing an important revenue stream
  • offers customer something new and different
  • form an essential part of your marketing and branding
  • be used as security for loans.

You may be surprised at how many aspects of your business can be protected its name and logo an design and invention, works for creative or intellectual effort or trademark that distinguish your business your business can be all types of IP.