INNOVATION UK161 Miles Rees, business outreach and education manager at the Intellectual Property Office, guides you through protecting your ideas and innovations Protect your profits Your idea When you have an idea and it takes some tangible form, then you need to think about intellectual prop-erty ( IP). Every business owns some form of IP, includ-ing names, logos, products and designs. Protecting IP allows people and businesses to own and profit from their ideas, whatever form they come in - which is a vital investment for businesses wanting to maintain market share and grow their offering in a challenging environment. The Intellectual Property Office ( IPO) offers a raft of initiatives to help businesses realise the benefits that IP awareness can bring and allow them to use it to grow and strengthen their enterprises at this crucial time. We work with businesses in various ways, offering advice and assistance at all stages of development. The first step is to identify the type of IP protection that is right for your business. It is a common misconception that IP relates only to inventors and registering patents for new products, and as a consequence, many people are unaware of the profit and benefits that can come from registering trade marks, designs and copyrights. There are also several myths surrounding intellectual property protection - that it is expensive, takes years and acts only as a badge or certification of something you've produced. The reality is hugely different; pro-tecting your creations is vital, and will prevent anybody else claiming credit, or more importantly, profiting from your ideas and products. As for cost and time, many types of intellectual property measures are very cost effec-tive, and there are options for accelerating applications and achieving pending status even if the registration is not yet complete. Identifying what IP asets you have Once you have your idea, the first step is to take advantage and make full use of the online Healthcheck tool on the IPO website. This free service, available at www. ipo. gov. uk/ iphealthcheck, has been designed to help business owners understand IP and find out how to protect their ideas and creations to drive their business forward. Users are offered advice on identify-ing, protecting and commercially exploiting IP. It also allows users to learn more about the different types of IP: trade marks, copyright works, patents, designs and design rights. Business Solutions Intellectual property office