Intellectual Property is one the most prized possessions of any business. However if you are a small business protecting it, might be a challenge. There are several reasons for this but the biggest one is financial. Patenting inventions is extremely expensive, starting at $530 just for filing and processing the patent, with a further $300 in early publication fees. The cost of trademark registration is lower, but it still begins at $275 and goes up from there. While the legal benefits resulting from registration are clear and undeniable, if you’re not able to pay the fees or your creation can’t be patented, then it’s an excellent idea to look at the alternatives.

Keep your Patent Idea as a Tradesecret

Keeping your patent idea as a tradesecret can be viable alternative if it concerns a particular process or procedure that can be kept confidential and cannot be reverse engineered. Tradesecret can be protected indefinitely, so long as they remain secrets. Coca-Cola is one of the best example, the beverage formula was never patented, but it remians protected due to secrecy surrounding. And none of Coca-Cola’s competitors have ever managed to imitate its unique taste. But keep in mind that trade secrets have limitations. Unlike copyrights, trade secrets do not protect you if someone does manage to reverse-engineer your product or develops the same product or procedure independently.

Claim Trademark Protection without registering patent

You don’t have to register your trademark to claim trademark protection.When you see the symbol TM symbol after your company’s slogan, for example, you’re communicating that it’s trademarked. Of course you can only trademark it if it’s unique, so do a thorough trademark search first. Publishing ideas and publically using the ™ symbol creates some historical evidence of your ownership of the trademark, but if you ever need to defend your trademark against an infringement, it’s best to have your trademark officially registered with the USPTO. You can only use the ® symbol when your trademark is officially registered.