Intellectual Property - Guidelines For Small Businesses

Introduction

Small businesses are the life blood of most economies in terms of their capacity to innovate and so to create wealth and employment. This will particularly be the case if, as some economists are forecasting, manufacturing activity continues to recover and to strengthen. However, the innovation and development of new products and processes is a demanding task, and the resources of time and money which may be left over to deal with intellectual property issues are sometimes limited. So the question which is often asked "How can we protect our rights?" often goes without a satisfactory answer. The purpose of this article is to consider some basic guidelines to ensure worthwhile protection is achieved.