How to Make Money from Intellectual Property?

Ensuring the protection of intellectual property within a company is a wise step, as it allows the company to defend its rights in court if an idea is used illegally. If the plaintiff company wins, the amount of compensation is often literally astronomical.

However, patents and property rights also provide another opportunity to earn money without resorting to legal services. Patented inventions cannot be used by anyone other than their creator, unless the creator has given consent.

And if such consent is given, it can most often be formalized in the form of a paid license, i.e., a form of granting temporary use of a technology, invention, or work. In a situation where the protected property is so innovative and valuable that its absence could significantly hinder or slow down the development and functioning of competing companies, cooperation on a licensing basis can bring the author significant profit.

Thus, a company’s intellectual property is not just what the entrepreneur and their employees have in their heads, but everything they have managed to create thanks to their own knowledge and skills. Therefore, it is always worth ensuring reliable protection in a timely manner for:

• Works;
• Inventions;
• Technologies;
• Mottos, slogans, and other unique creations.

Protecting Intellectual Property During Hiring

When we see a job offer where recruiters require the creation of specific advertising slogans or projects, it is worth being extremely vigilant. Of course, such actions may be justified by the desire to test the skills and creativity of potential candidates.

However, there are many other ways to check a candidate’s qualifications without necessarily ordering the creation of a specific work. Unfortunately, very often companies conduct fictitious recruitment processes just to get new ideas for free.

What should you remember? First of all, when we personally hand over application documents along with the created work to a potential employer, it is best to ask for a receipt of delivery, so that in the future we have proof that the work was actually handed over to the recruiter.

However, if we send documents by email, it is better to save a copy of the sent email. Moreover, the work should be signed with our first and last name, so there is no doubt who the author is. It is also worth remembering to send it in a non-editable format (e.g., so that no one can delete our name from the text).

To be 100% sure that the work will not be illegally used by a future employer, you can ask them to sign an agreement that will regulate the future fate of the submitted work.

If in the future we discover that our work has been illegally used by a potential employer, we can file a lawsuit in court – provided, of course, that we have evidence that the work was indeed submitted and that we own the copyright to it.