Getting naked with government and big business

“The biggest mistake small business people make is going in naked to see big companies,” says patent attorney, Ken McInness.

 

Ken is discussing intellectual property protection, and explaining how small business owners can avoid being scammed when contracting to big companies or government departments.

 

Ken did a career about-face 22 years ago, ditching biochemistry for intellectual property (IP) protection. He knows all the ins and outs of protecting IP rights and, in particular, about protecting Australian business ideas from anyone, anywhere, in the world.

 

“The reality is that without intellectual property protection in place, small businesses are asking to be ripped off,” he insists.

 

Ken’s seen it all. Shiny, happy small business people knock on government doors, like lambs to the slaughter. They’re let in, their idea goes to tender and before they know it, a third party has swooped in and ripped them off. It can take months for them to realise their little gem has been ripped off by someone else – who’s suddenly hit pay-dirt.

 

Sound familiar? It should, because it happens all the time. Only around a quarter of small businesses in Australia have adequate intellectual property protection, leaving the remainder at risk of being scammed and stung when they play with the big boys.

 

So how do you avoid becoming a sorry statistic?

 

Step one is to find a patent attorney. Most patent attorneys will offer a free initial consultation to assess whether your cracker idea has legs and, if so, where to head with it. Be warned though – the freebies end here.

 

Step two is to lodge a patent application for your new idea or development. Twelve months’ protection will probably set you back between $2500 and $4000, but from the day it’s filed, your idea will be totally protected.

 

Step three, if appropriate, is to try to get industrial design protection for your idea. For example, if you have developed a clever new mechanism for watches, industrial design protection will prevent other companies from, quite legally, pilfering your idea.

 

It’s not always possible, but if you can get the company or government body to sign a non-disclosure agreement, you’ll be even further protected. Why is it tough? Big companies are being bombarded constantly with ideas from small businesses, perhaps in the same corner of the universe as yours. The company would have to have a lot of faith to lock you in exclusively, but it’s worth a try.

 

Copyright issues can provide further headaches for the small business owner. A big, and all too common, mistake is in not ensuring who owns the copyright for your designs. Contrary to popular belief, paying a designer a lot of money to develop a design for you does not give you automatic ownership of that design. Without a ‘Transfer of Ownership’ or ‘Assignment of Ownership’ IN WRITING, the designer will still own the copyright and you won’t be recognised under Australian Copyright Law.

 

Developing and marketing any new product costs a lot of time, sweat and money. Ensuring that you have appropriate intellectual property protection, and that you own the copyright on your designs, will help to prevent you being caught with your pants down.