Can a Lawyer help me protect my Startup idea or Product?

In India, various businesses and startups are growing rapidly, and to protect their Intellectual Property resources, they take the aid and advice of lawyers. The lawyers having expertise in the field, help the clients through various Intellectual property laws such as Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights, etc. In all, these tools are a sort of legal mandate that provides ownership in the form of a legal license to the actual owners of an intellectual property.

But, the question of the hour is, can the lawyers help in protecting the “idea” of a startup or a product? To explain more clearly. Suppose you’re on a call with your friend, and out of the blue, while coming up with a random idea of creating a business, you pitch the same idea to your friend. At this stage, you haven’t done anything or made any preparations to run that business; you have just come up with an “idea” of some startup, which you might begin in the future.

Now, what if this friend of yours takes this idea and starts his own business, and that too without involving you, and considering you live in a capitalist society, you’ll feel wronged, right?

Let’s start by answering the first question –

Can a Startup “idea” be protected?

In the Indian legal landscape, a startup idea, in itself, cannot be protected in the form of a patent. For patent is given for inventions that are new and original, non-obvious, and can be practically made in an industry. Invention refers to the creation of an original product or a process that leads to development in technology.

Whereas, a business idea, without any form of preparations or any product made to bring that idea to life, is not at all an invention, and thus, it cannot be protected as a patent. But if, in a situation, suppose, that business has developed such product that is innovative and meets the above mentioned requirements, then you “Better Call Saul!” or Lawyer up, and thus, a lawyer will surely help you in protecting the invention which is made as a result of that idea by drafting, filing, and other legal processes and even aid and help you in case any objection may arise against it in the future.

So, now this friend of yours, who tried taking the idea away at the first place, can’t even start that business, why, because now, you have patented the product that was a result of such idea in your name and one more thing, this protection is given for 20 years, so, you need not worry, just sit back and relax and let your lawyer do the job.

So, what you understood by now is that an idea cannot be protected, but its particular form can be, it might be written on a sheet of paper as a written plan or any product that specifies the criteria.

Now, the product is being registered in your name. You must be wondering what the next step might be. Maybe start producing it as a business, wasn’t that your whole “idea” in the first place? Pun intended. Here’s what your lawyer will do –

Protection for actual Startup and Products:

This type of protection is different from a patent. And it’s called a trademark. It’s a sort of design, or maybe a logo, or a combination of words that mainly help you in distinguishing your start-up or product from someone else’s, even if it’s not an invention like in the case of patents.

So, now you’re producing that product on a large scale, you have set up your business as well, bought a factory, raised capital, brought in employees, and voila, now you are contributing to the GDP of the country by producing goods and services. Something’s still missing, right? Oh, your product, what is it called? And, it must have a name, and so does your business. And it’s not wrong to say that the person who tried to take your product away once might do it again, just this time, taking away the name of the business and creating confusion in the market, and even taking away your profits. So, you need protection for it as well now, do you? Don’t worry, a lawyer will help you.

The product and startup’s name and logo, etc., will be protected by your lawyer by registering them as a trademark. A lawyer will help you again by filing, drafting, registering, and ultimately protecting the name and logos, etc., used for your business that distinguish it and make it stand apart.

Now, let’s discuss the other ways in which a lawyer can help you in the protection of your business idea or product –

Other forms of protection:

Copyrights, trade secrets, and confidential information:

So, now that your business and its products and even inventions are protected. You might want to write about how you scaled up your business by writing up about your journey in a book while giving business tips as well. A lawyer will help you in protecting this book from being copied away through registering it as a copyright, which simply is an intellectual property protection provided to the creators who make original works of their own such as something written as an author (a book in this case), or some artistic, musical or dramatic work of yours, a lawyer will aid in protecting it by filing and maintaining copyright registrations and help you in even enforcing your right in case of any plagiarism or theft.

Now, your business is expanding, and you wish to launch a product on a particular date, but what if it information gets leaked to the common public even before creating the hype for it? It will reduce profits. And the same might get leaked through the people in your own business. So, a lawyer will aid you in protecting these trade secrets and confidential information that gives you a competitive advantage. A lawyer will help you by making the people who know about the product that we talked about earlier sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, which is a contract that attracts liability if the signee contradicts it by disclosing the information. A good lawyer will even advise you on internal security measures.

Aid in drafting other required contracts:

A lawyer will help you in by drafting a founder’s agreement, which, as the name states, is a document signed at the creation of a startup, that outlines ownership, roles, vesting of shares and management of IP which will ultimately help you in protecting the intellectual property associated to your product or startup. They will also help you while raising investment, as the same is also done through a legal contract, so they’ll safeguard your ownership of intellectual property through the signing of Investment Agreements.

Protecting IP globally:

A lawyer can even help you in the protection of your Intellectual Property at the International Level, by filing trademarks internationally, drafting cross-border licensing agreements through their knowledge of foreign rules and regulations.

In Conclusion, So, we can conclude that, at every stage of your business or startup, from a mere “idea” to grinding and raising it globally, lawyers will help, aid, and advise you at every stage, and thus their role is very prominent in the same. And lastly, while a lawyer performs their work with absolute perfection, what can you do, at your level, is simply taking safety and precautions like not leaving any idea or product blueprint at your business desk, strictly mandating your employees from not disclosing it or maybe, by not disclosing that idea to your friend at the first place, instead, disclose it to a lawyer.