Intellectual Property Protection Is Important to Artists and Creative Businesses
Are you thinking about getting Intellectual Property Rights for your product?
That’s fantastic. In this post, I am going to share with you what is an Intellectual Property, why it is important, and why it is even more important for artists and creative businesses.
Let’s start by defining what it is.
What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual Property refers to the creation of the mind. In simple words, any product that is created by humans, whether digital or physical, falls under the category of Intellectual property. The most comon types of intellectual property are Trade Secrets, Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents.
Intellectual Property Rights gives you the legal rights to the product. The product could be a logo, software, painting, car, or a house. The reason you won’t hear about a house or a car as intellectual property is because in society we generally associate intellect with abstract and not physical.
Therefore, if a property is physical, we generally don’t call it intellectual property and instead we just call it property or sometimes physical property. Of course, this is incorrect because physical properties are also created using human intellect.
Now that you’re familiar with the definition of intellectual property, let’s talk about why it is important and why it is especially important for art and creative businesses.
Why is Intellectual Property important for artists and creative businesses?
There are two points I am going to cover in this section.
- Why is Intellectual Property important?
- Why is it more important for art and creative businesses?
So far, so good? Awesome. Let’s start with why it is important in the first place.
There are two reasons why Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) are important for businesses and individuals. It protects the identity of your property and it provides multiple opportunities for creating more money. Every business owns or uses some form of intellectual property (IP). It should be part of your business plan from day one and you shouldn’t wait for your business to be successful before protecting your IP.
If you don’t have the license or ownership for your property, then the law is not going to recognize the property as yours. This is bad because if your property gets stolen or damaged, you don’t have any legal authority to file a complaint against the person who did it.
For example, if you own a gun but you don’t have a license, if the gun gets stolen then you can’t just go to the police and file a complaint for a stolen gun.
But, as I have said earlier, protecting your property isn’t the only benefit of IPR. It can help you increase your earnings as well. It gives your business a unique identity which helps the business stand out and you can earn royalties by licensing your product.
As you can see, having an ownership or a license for your property is beneficial in many ways. Now, let’s move towards the second part of this section.
Why is having an ownership or license for art and products of creative businesses even more important than other areas?
The answer is because creative work such as logos, art, and music is easier to steal compared to let’s say a car. Therefore, if you don’t use IPR for your product, then it’s easier for others to make similar or even identical products to yours, compared to products in other industries.
Another reason is that you’re more likely to earn money from royalties than in any other field. To find out whether it’s true, just search logo templates and check the number of downloads.
Finding the right support for your intellectual property needs can often be complex and overwhelming; hence I started www.sipmanagement.co.uk a platform and community for small businesses in the creative industries and artists that helps them easily protect and manage their IP rights.
If you need any help or guidance in IP matters check out our educational blog posts and topic focused forum posts and drop us a line.
You can find us on Instagram @sipmanagement9
That’s it! I have covered everything I promised for. If anything is not clear, feel free to ask me questions in the comments section and if you’ve found this post helpful, share it on social media so others can benefit too.
