Trade secrets and other IP protection

When it comes to protecting intellectual property (IP), familiar rights come to mind: patents, copyright, trade marks and designs.

While these are certainly important, it's important to know that you can protect your IP in a number of other ways. These include trade secrets, confidentiality agreements, company names, and various specialised rights relating to databases, publications and plans. You can also protect some types of IP with conditional access technology and electronic copy protection devices.

This guide will examine the different approaches to IP protection. It will highlight some of their advantages and disadvantages and suggested uses. Finally, it will point out measures that can help you to protect your business' original products, services and ideas.