Did you know there are just over 10,000 trademark and patent lawyers in the United States?
If you have ideas to safeguard, it’s important that you get to know at least one of these attorneys. Not only can it save your creative ventures, but it can also help you achieve a lot more along the way. What do you stand to gain, though?
Luckily, we’re here to tell you all about the benefits of hiring an IP lawyer. Read on to learn about a few of the best.
Safeguard Your Creations
The biggest benefit to hiring an attorney is that your creations are legally yours. This means no one else can steal your ideas or inventions.
An IP lawyer’s main concern is the practice of protecting intellectual property, meaning securing and enforcing your legal rights to any designs, inventions, or artwork of your own making. Typically, this is done through trademarks, patents, and copyrights.
Whether you’re creating a makeup palette or a plate, seeking the advice and counsel of an IP attorney can be a big help.
Perform a Due Diligence Assessment
IP attorneys are also great for helping you conduct due diligence. This means assessing the quality and quantity of the assets you already have, or that have been registered under your name. This not only helps better protect your assets, but it also increases the value of your intangible assets.
The value of intangible assets is measured by a few things:
- Origination
- Ownership
- Robustness
- Status
When these four things can be proven as strong, a company can be considered a more worthy investment. Conducting due diligence in these areas also helps mitigate any risks a company could face by putting their own new ideas, innovations, or inventions out into the world.
By conducting due diligence on both tangible and intangible assets, companies place themselves at much lower risk for lawsuits and other legal troubles later down the line.
Draft Essential Agreements
An IP attorney can also help with important legal documents like:
- Transfer of owners
- Deeds of assignment
- Licensing agreements
- Secret clauses for precautionary motives
When you’re drafting legal agreements of any kind, having an IP attorney by your side to guide you through the process can save you time, headaches, and even money down the line.
While writing these things on your own is completely possible, it’s also incredibly risky. This is especially true if you end up facing a breach of contract that could end up landing you in court or costing money. If you sign something that another company wrote, you might even subject yourself to something called unfair favoritism.
These documents could purposely be tilted in the favor of the opposite, meaning a lot of potential trouble for you. If things come up and you signed a document that left you unprotected, there’s often nothing that can be done.
All these headaches can be avoided with the help of a reliable IP attorney.
Assist With Applications and Registrations
There are a lot of documents you’ll need to fill out when you’re applying for trademarks, copyrights, or patents, and having an attorney to help through each step of the process is essential.
They’ll likely have been through the process with clients before you, and they’ll know exactly how to get you through it all. They can help you fill everything out with ease and accuracy.
You won’t have to worry about whether or not you’re making mistakes or errors along the way, as you’ll have industry expert by your side through every step of the process.
Determine the Value of Your IP
It might sound add, but adding a monetary value to your intellectual property is one of the most important steps of the process.
That’s why calling upon an experienced IP attorney to assist with this step is so essential. They’ll be able to help determine the value of what you have under your property, and they’ll be able to come up with a number based on costs and requirements you might not consider.
A lot of these factors depend largely on where you’re located and the nature of the idea itself. While an IP attorney can only conduct an estimate, it’s still a great idea to have that under your belt. It can help determine whether your idea is worth pursuing or if it’d be best to move on to other things.
No Worries About Infringement
When you’re working on any aspect of business, you can’t just be “familiar” with the process and its laws. IP attorneys are considered experts for a reason, and trusting them is the best possible move you can make as a business owner or creator.
When you have someone by your side throughout the entire process, you’ll know that you’re legally ready to defend your IP rights whenever and wherever it might be necessary.
Don’t leave yourself unprotected and unable to fight legal battles. Be sure to trust the experts when it’s needed the most.
Protect Your Rights With an IP Lawyer
If something is rightfully yours, there’s no point in fighting with someone else over it. Hiring an IP Lawyer from the beginning can help protect your inventions and ideas from any possibility of infringement. It can also save you the time and headache that comes with lawsuits.
Luckily, hiring the right lawyer has never been easier. Check out the rest of our website to learn more of what you need to know about the process.
