You’ve thought long and hard, and you have a great idea for an Internet business that you know will be wildly successful. Now what? Of course, you should start developing your Internet business as soon as possible—but you should also take steps to protect your idea from intellectual property theft. You may think you don’t have to worry about such a thing, but the truth is: if you have a great Internet business idea and someone else is able to use it before you get the chance, you might miss out on success. The first thing you should be aware of is that your Internet business idea is intellectual property—your property. And just like any other property, it can be protected. There are three different methods of protecting Internet business ideas: patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Which one you choose depends on the type of idea you have. Sometimes, an Internet business idea can require more than one, or even all three. Your intellectual property, in the form of an Internet business idea, can enjoy protection under United States law so that once you launch your online business, or even before you launch, you won’t have to worry about copycat businesses springing up to detract from your customer base. Here is a quick overview of the different ways to protect your Internet business idea, so you can tell which one you should file for:
Patent: This type of protection is for inventions—a physical product or a new improvement to an existing product that you came up with. You can apply for a patent for your product through the U.S. Patent Office, which can apply to intellectual property pertaining to your Internet business.
Trademark: Trademarks are used to protect the names of products or services so that no one else can use that particular name. For example, you can invent the best widget on the market and call them “Wendy’s Widgets”, and then file a trademark so that no other widgets can be called “Wendy’s Widgets.” A trademark can also apply to a title for a book series; basically, anything that has a name can be trademarked.
Copyright: A copyright is most popularly applied to books or articles. Copyrights acknowledge that the intellectual property protected under it belongs to you and no one else, and therefore cannot be reproduced without your permission. If your Internet business idea is an e-book, a training course, series of articles, or audio content, you can apply for a copyright through the U.S. Copyright Office to protect your words from theft. As long as your Internet business idea is viable, and you know there is a market for what you plan to offer, you should always take steps to protect your intellectual property. Filing for a patent, a trademark or a copyright can save your Internet business!