Unlocking IP: What Start-Ups Need to Know

If you’re launching a start-up, intellectual property (IP) could be one of your most valuable assets, sometimes the only one at the outset. Understanding the types of IP rights available, and how to use them strategically, is crucial for protecting your innovation and attracting investment.

Below, we outline the key IP rights every start-up should consider.

1. Patents – Protecting Technical Innovation

For deep-tech ventures, patents are often the go-to IP right. A patent gives the owner the exclusive right to use, license or sell their invention for up to 20 years (with extensions available in limited cases, like pharmaceuticals). In return, the invention must be publicly disclosed in enough detail to be reproducible.

To be patentable, your invention must be:

• Novel (not already disclosed),
• Inventive (not obvious),
• Industrially applicable, and
• Not fall within excluded subject matter, such as scientific theories, aesthetic creations, or business methods.

While a powerful asset, patents can be costly (around £5,000+ initially) and slow to obtain (often 5+ years to grant). For start-ups, it’s vital to align your patent strategy with your commercial goals early on.

2. Trade Secrets – Low-Cost, High-Risk Protection

Trade secrets, confidential business information that gives you a competitive edge, can be valuable if properly protected. Think formulas, processes or customer lists.

Key considerations:

• Once a trade secret is reverse-engineered or leaked, it’s no longer a secret.
• Confidentiality agreements (NDAs/CDAs) help protect your trade secrets but can be hard to enforce.

Use trade secrets selectively and only where secrecy can be realistically maintained.

3. Trade Marks – Building Brand Value

A strong brand is more than a logo, it’s a promise to your customers. Trade marks enable consumers to distinguish the quality and origin of these goods/services from those of other brands. Trade marks protect signs that distinguish your goods or services, such as:

• Words and logos,
• Colours and sounds,
• Or combinations of these.

Registered trade marks can last indefinitely, as long as they’re renewed every 10 years and used in trade. Alternatively, unregistered marks can be protected through passing off, but this requires proving goodwill, misrepresentation/deception and damage, making it more challenging to enforce.

4. Copyright – Protecting Creative Outputs

Copyright arises automatically when you create an original, tangible work – no registration is needed. This means that it must be the product of your own skill, labour and intellectual creation and it cannot be simply an idea but instead must be recorded in some format. It covers:

• Original literary, dramatic, musical, artistic work including illustration and photography,
• Original non-literary written work, such as software, web content, and databases,
• Music, photography, film, and broadcasts, and
• Website layouts and more.

It protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. In most cases, protection lasts for 70 years after the author’s death.

5. Design Rights – Safeguarding Aesthetics

Design rights protect how something looks – its shape, pattern, or ornamentation rather than functional aspects.

To qualify, a design must be:

• New – not identical or differing only in immaterial details from existing designs, and
• Possess individual character – creating a different overall impression on an informed user.

There are two types:

• Registered designs – protect for up to 25 years, with renewal every 5 years.
• Unregistered designs – arise automatically and protect for between 3 and 15 years (depending on the type of unregistered design right), but are harder to enforce.

Key differences:

• Unregistered rights only protect against copying; registered rights protect against similar designs even if no actual coping has taken place.
• Registered rights cover both 2D and 3D features; certain unregistered rights only protect 3D features.
• Unregistered rights flow from disclosure or creation of the design; registered rights flow from registration, and a grace period allows you to file a registered design application up to 12 months after public disclosure (more flexible than the strict disclosure rules relating to patents).

Why IP Matters for Start-Ups

IP rights don’t just protect your innovation – they’re a critical part of your commercial story. Investors, partners, and customers look for clear signs that your business is built on a secure foundation.

At Briffa, we help start-ups navigate the IP landscape and craft strategies that turn ideas into assets. Whether you’re protecting a logo, licensing a patent, or drafting NDAs, we can support your journey.

Written by Kemal Tayyareci and work experience student Ryhan Miah.