Many times, self-employed professionals and small businesses think that innovation protection is not for us. It seems like something reserved for large corporations, international tech companies, or projects that handle million-dollar patents. And yet, the reality is quite different: most businesses, even the smallest ones, have something valuable that they should protect.
The problem is that, often, we don’t even know what can or should be protected. Is it a brand? The product name? The design of a package? A proprietary work method? How an app functions? The answer is usually broader than we imagine.
For this reason, in this article we propose several real and simple examples, designed so that any professional or small business can identify their own intangible assets and understand why protecting them can make the difference between growing safely or being exposed to copies and imitations.
Protecting what you create, a resource within everyone’s reach
Innovation protection is not a luxury but a strategic tool for both small businesses and large companies. Protecting a brand, a design, a method, or an innovative product is ensuring that what sets you apart continues to be yours. The purpose is none other than to prevent others from appropriating your effort and also a way to increase the company’s value.
Protecting this innovation means:
- Avoiding unwanted copies and maintaining the exclusivity of what makes you different.
- Increasing the company’s value, since brands and patents are intangible assets that can be sold, licensed, or transferred.
- Gaining credibility, especially in sectors where competition is high.
- Creating a solid legal foundation to negotiate with distributors, partners, or investors.
- Facilitating expansion toward new business lines or internationally.
- The smaller a company is, the more important it is to protect every step it takes.
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The artisanal cosmetics brand that wins customers through its name and presentation
Let’s imagine an entrepreneur who creates a small natural cosmetics brand based on Galician plants in Ferrolterra. She sells online and at local markets, and gradually begins to succeed.
The risk appears when another brand, seeing the pull of these natural products, launches a product with a very similar name and an almost identical package. If the entrepreneur doesn’t have her brand registered, she can lose not only her company name, but also the recognition she has gained.
What she can do to protect herself is:
- Register the brand: the name and logo become exclusive.
- Protect the package design: if it’s original, it can be registered as an industrial design.
- Protect a formula or method, if innovative, through a patent.
- Registration is not a formality: it’s a shield.
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The chef who turns a culinary creation into a distinctive sign
A self-employed chef from O Salnés creates a dish that begins to attract visitors for its appearance as special as its taste, a dessert that recreates a small Atlantic forest on the plate.
The recipe cannot be patented, recipes do not fall into the patent category, but the design, the visual presentation of the preparation, can be protected. It’s one more asset of the restaurant and a way to prevent other establishments from literally copying a creation that requires experimentation and talent.
The restaurant’s name, or even the chef’s commercial name, can also be registered as a brand, reinforcing the gastronomic project’s identity.
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A self-employed person’s app that can be lost if not well protected
A programmer from Lugo develops an application to facilitate reservations at small tourist accommodations. The app starts working and a larger platform detects its potential. Without adequate protection, that company could launch a very similar application or even appropriate an almost identical name.
In this case, the self-employed person can protect:
- The application’s brand (the commercial name).
- The software, through copyright, documenting their ownership.
- A patent, if it incorporates a new technical system with a clear practical application.
- By doing so, they ensure that the idea born on their computer remains theirs.
Many self-employed professionals think that registering a brand or a patent is expensive, complex, or unnecessary, especially in the first months of a project. It’s just the opposite, protecting in the initial stages is usually cheaper and avoids future problems that can put all the work done at risk.
Having professional support, such as that offered by the Economic Office of Galicia, can be decisive for successful implementation. Take advantage of the specialized advisory services and free resources at your disposal to strengthen your business project.
