Protecting Intellectual Property

Your company’s intellectual property (commonly referred to as “IP”), is an undeniably your most important asset. Though it is usually intangible, IP is predominantly far more valuable than most of the other physical assets of your company as most often the survival of your organization depends upon it. Therefore, protecting your intellectual property is just as important (or more so) than locking your office and other facilities at the end of the day. Every industry is susceptible to data breaches and according to a recent survey more than a quarter of cybercriminals are intellectual property spies.

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual Property is a class of assets that are the products or ideas of original, creative thought. There are many types of intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, copyrighted material, industrial designs, geographical indications and trade secrets. 

Naturally, intellectual property assets are highly invaluable as they are often the end result of years of research and development, as well as large sums of capital invested into them over the years. In many situations, intellectual property is the greatest asset of a company. Avoiding intellectual property violations by using technology is a necessary step to take in this era of data breaches and cyber attacks.

How Intellectual Property Can Be Compromised

Similar to any other type of computer hack or data breach, theft of intellectual property can be a devastating blow to any organization. These attacks can come from any number of external sources or even internal sources and for any number of reasons. Naturally, keeping your valuable IP (and other) data within your network, safe from such threats, is of paramount importance

It is a fact that not all theft of intellectual property is through foreign agents or competitors,quite often it’s an “inside job” – meaning somebody within the organization is responsible for the crime. And the most important factor for this is the failure to follow and implement the best practices and established security standards within the network, giving insiders, who may not be authorized to access your IP files. Having systems and safeguards in place will help block intruders from poking around your proprietary files.  

 

Best Practices to Ensure the Security of your Intellectual Property:

• Take stock of your inventory: Before taking steps to protect your intellectual property, it helps if you know exactly what it is you’re defending. Your company’s IP may consist of Patents, Inventions, Designs, Trademarks, Symbols, Images, Copyrighted works (e.g. literature, artworks, films, and music).
• Define user roles and access: Clearly define which people inside (and potentially outside) the organization should have access to your IP and to what extent. Share the smallest amount of information, with the fewest number of people, in order to successfully operate—and no more. Note that external third parties may require access to certain IP assets on a case-by-case basis.
• Institute a clear IP policy: Internal management or employee negligence is one of the biggest causes of IP theft and infringement. A single mistake or successful phishing attack can result in irrevocable losses for your company.To lessen this risk, you must have a clearly defined IP policy that all new employees and recent departures must review and sign upon joining and leaving the organization. This policy should be reviewed at regular intervals, and should account for employee feedback. Non-disclosure agreements are also a must for employees who will be interacting with company IP on a regular basis.
• Use a secure Virtual Data Room: When interacting with third parties external to your organization (e.g. during M&A transactions, fundraising rounds, and audits), it’s often necessary to share intellectual property information that could be disastrous if it lands into the wrong hands. That’s where the best virtual data room providers like DocullyVDR come in. Docully VDR is a secure data storage and file sharing platform for storing and sharing confidential and sensitive files.Modern VDRs like the best virtual data room services like DocullyVDR come packed with state-of-the-art technology and top notch security features  that help protect your company’s most valuable intellectual property, including strict user access controls, watermarking, and activity audit trails. These features help make VDRs even more secure than sharing documents in person.
• Regularly implement training and policy implementation refresher programs: Training and policy implementation refresher programs can also help employees understand the risks of IP theft and the steps they need to take to protect themselves and the business. IP protection must be an integral part of all employee orientation sessions, as well as any IT security training programs. Most importantly, teach employees to recognize signs of common attacks: e.g. phishing scams designed to gain access to login details or social engineering attacks that manipulate people into divulging information. Finding a secure deal data room that helps you secure and manage your IP data is of paramount importance. The best data room services like DocullyVDR not only provides you world-class bank grade security, but also that has the tools to allow you to easily manage your data, and that has the reputation for uptime and 24/7/365 customer service.