Brand And IP Explained
In simple terms, your brand is anything that associates a product, person or service with your company. As a physical representation, it can include the logo you use on uniforms, stationery and signage, a particular font style or even a colour. This is often referred to as a trademark.
Intellectual property or IP is how we define any intangible asset that has been created as a result of an intelligent process. Trademarks are intellectual property, but so are copyright material and patents.
- Copyright is the automatic protection given to the author or producer of music or lyrics, written or graphic content, and theatrical or film production against unauthorised copying, distribution or performance.
- Patents specifically cover the physical design elements of a product or product component, the process by which product functions or a process used to produce a product.
IP Protection: Is It Enough?
As it is granted automatically, copyright requires no registration process nor is any fee charged. On the other hand, trademark protection requires registration, a process that ensures the trademark doesn’t infringe on the rights of any other existing trademarks. Patent protection is similar to trademark protection but is generally a longer more complex and more expensive process.
Copyright, trademark and patent protection are effective in two ways: they act as a deterrent to anyone who might try to imitate or use the protected material and can be used against such persons or organisations in a court of law.
What they are less effective against is potential damage caused before any unauthorised use or imitation has been discovered.
PROTECTR: Your Single Source For Enhanced Brand And IP Protection
To ensure your protected intellectual property remains protected, secure, and confidential, we have, as a data destruction company, launched PROTECTR – an innovative three-step approach to brand and IP protection under one roof.
Already well established as a UK-wide secure document recycling service, SECURALL ensures all your paper-based commercially sensitive and personal data is guarded, handled and destroyed to standards that exceed the requirements of GDPR.
The SECURALL system uses innovation to streamline and simplify the data destruction process.
- Documents cannot be tampered with once placed in a secure disposal console
- A phone app notifies us when each console requires emptying by our customer service representative
- The discarded documents are either shredded on-site or transported securely to our shredding facility
- You are issued with a Certificate of Destruction for GDPR audit purposes
Once the documents are shredded, SECURALL meets its environmental responsibilities by recycling 100% of the paper waste.
Secure textile recycling is also an essential part of brand and IP protection, and this is provided by SECUREBRAND.
The destruction of corporate clothing that bears the brand or insignia of a known company or organisation once it is no longer required is an effective deterrent to the impersonation of genuine company, security or emergency services employees. This can prevent unauthorised persons from gaining access to restricted areas or information and protect the public from harm.
Secure textile recycling can also protect against damage to retail brands, with substandard, overproduced and counterfeit products that carry or imitate the brands’ distinctive name or style permanently prevented from reaching the market.
As with SECURALL paper waste, the fibres produced by the SECUREBRAND destruction process are recycled as products to extend their useful life and reduce the volume of waste going to landfill.
With most information now stored digitally rather than on printed documents, this information must also be securely destroyed when it is no longer required.
Information may be stored in external storage devices such as hard drives, flash drives and disks, which the SECURETECH destruction process reduces to fine particles.
This information can include anything from email messages to sales and marketing strategies, from customer and supplier databases to confidential product designs and from videoconference recordings to details on special contract pricing.
Care should also be taken when disposing of or selling old laptops, desktop computers and portable devices, as information can still lurk in data storage components even when the hard drive has been ‘wiped’. Even other office equipment such as printers may contain sensitive data.
SECURETECH will safely dispose of your redundant electronic equipment, ensuring no data can be retrieved and the environmental requirements of WEEE are complied with.
How To PROTECTR Your Brand And IP
Enhancing your brand and IP protection is simple and fast with PROTECTR. Call us today on
0845 521 9892 for a free, no-obligation discussion of your situation and requirements or fill in our online
contact form for a prompt response.
