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Find out at Understanding Intellectual Property for Engineers, an IMechE training course running in London on 19 May. Aimed at engineers and non-engineers of all levels, the session will cover essential rules for protecting your IP, the dangers of infringing third-party IP and guidance on what to say in negotiations.
The course will be led by IP expert Donal O’Connell. Here are his five practical tips to start protecting your ideas.
Take IP seriously
Research shows that companies who take IP seriously – and who think about how they use IP to protect their innovation and creativity – outperform companies who don’t. This doesn’t guarantee success, but it’ll give you a higher chance.
Prepare for a challenge
Unfortunately, IP is complex. It has oddities and idiosyncrasies, which can be a hurdle, and is made up of different forms: patents, trademarks, copyright, designs – you name it. There are 20 to 30 forms, so first figure out which will apply in your case. Some of this complexity is because we are dealing with a branch of law that has been around for many years: patents and copyright from the Middle Ages, and trademarks from the end of the 18th century.
You’ve got to allocate time and energy to understanding it. There’s no shortcut, which makes it challenging. If you’re an entrepreneur, time is one of the things you lack – and you’ve also got to think about your finances, your suppliers, your marketing. Just make sure that when you’re juggling, one of the balls you’re juggling is IP.
Be smart with your spending
IP can be expensive. Budgets are tight at a lot of start-up companies, so you’ve got to be smart with how you spend your money. In the early stage, can you rely more on unregistered forms of IP such as trade secrets, know-how, unregistered trademarks or unregistered designs?
You’ve got to be really clever, using limited funds to protect your work. Unregistered forms of IP can’t do everything, but they certainly can help your business get through that early stage. Then, when your company grows and you have more funds, you can start thinking about allocating more money to this area.
Don’t forget your partners
No company is an island: you are connected to others, including key suppliers and key collaboration parties. You might be collaborating with your local university. You may have distributors and customers.
These days, almost all agreements with partners will have a section on IP. These agreements, and the IP provisions in these agreements, are defining your relationship with others in your ecosystem.
We see some early-stage companies treating some agreements, including NDAs (non-disclosure agreements), like confetti. No, no, no – that’s a legal agreement.
Treat IP as valuable property
We often think about IP as being a legal issue, but it’s actually an asset class. It has some of the characteristics of other asset classes, including real estate and stock, with associated costs and value. I can license and sell my IP to you, for example.
With tangible assets, companies know they need to prevent people taking them and walking out the door. We need to think the same way about our IP.
IMechE’s Understanding Intellectual Property for Engineers course runs in London on 19 May 2026. Find out more and book.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.