Ray Young is CEO of RightsIn Marketplace, a global online marketplace that seamlessly connects buyers with sellers of intellectual property. The RightsIn team previously founded WebConcepts, Inc. and created software that revolutionized the way DVD distributions are planned and replenished to global retailers for major Hollywood studios.
"One of the most obvious ways of protecting intellectual property (IP) is..."
By registering it with the appropriate government office. In the United States, brands or logos (i.e., trademarks) and inventions (i.e., patents) get registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, while original creative works (i.e., copyright) get registered with the United States Copyright Office. A primary reason for registering an IP asset is to give constructive notice to the world of claimed ownership. In many cases, this will create a legal presumption of the identity of the owner of the asset and will help the content owner resolve disputes. It is also also prudent to monitor your asset through watch notices, alerts and the like.
A trademark owner, for example, may receive watch notices that provide information on new trademarks that may be infringing on the owner’s mark. IP owners may also receive alerts that advise them of potential counterfeits. Moreover, copyright owners will want to monitor the Internet to locate misappropriations and other unauthorized uses of their works. Difficulties in protecting one's IP – and earning money from it – is actually why we launched the RightsIn Marketplace in the first place. One of the main reasons why IP is pirated is that it is simply not easy to purchase or license it. We're aiming to help solve that issue with our new marketplace, giving content owners more control over their products.