Researching and Protecting your Coffee Shop Business Idea

At first glance you may think that copyright, patents and general intellectual property have little to do with starting your coffee shop. The reality is that you must pay close attention to protecting elements of your new business’ brand from unfair use by other competing shops in your sector.

Today, branding is one of the most important aspects of any business. As a coffee shop is very much in the public eye, attracting customers with a distinctive name and logo are vitally important components of your marketing. Elements of your brand including your shop’s name and log provide essential components of your business’ USP (unique selling point). You must, therefore, take practical steps to protect these pieces of your business’ intellectual property.

What is Intellectual Property?

If you have an idea for a unique name for your business, you can’t copyright or patent that idea until you have expressed this in some tangible way. Once you have created a logo that incorporates your design, this is your intellectual property that you can protect under law. You can get basic information about the different types of intellectual property that might impact on your business from the UK Intellectual Property Office who have a handy guide (My IP: Intellectual Property Explained) you can download.

Intellectual property falls into several unique groups that include:

• Copyright
• Trademarks
• Patents

Copyright

Copyright is the most well understood and easiest method of protecting your business’ intellectual property. You can add the (?) icon to any expression of an idea that you want to protect. Copyright lasts the lifetime of the person that created the copyrighted material plus 70 years after their death. Note that copyright law is not international. You may have to apply for copyright protection in each region of the world your business will be trading in. More information can be obtained from the UK Copyright Service.

Trademarks

Perhaps more than any other component of a business’ identity, its trademark is all-important. We all recognise the trademarks or logos of the businesses we like to buy from, and associate these images with the quality and value of the products we buy.

Any combination of words and images can be used to create a trademark. Once you have created your design you can protect this under law. However, you can’t register a trademark if:

• The trademark is in any way deceptive or deemed immoral.
• Descriptive of a characteristic of the services or goods your business sells.
• Is similar to internationally protected symbols or names. You can read more about these types of symbols and trademarks on the World Intellectual Property Organisation website.

Before you begin your application it’s a good idea to read the booklet Trademarks: Essential Reading that you can download from the UK Intellectual Property Office’s website.

Patents

If you have invented a new device that you will be using in your business that you think is unique you can apply to protect that invention with a patent. Patent law is notoriously complex and takes in some cases several years for a patent to be issued. It’s a good idea to first search the current patent database for any other patents that are similar to yours before you make your formal application.

You can obtain detailed information about how the patent system works and how you can apply for your own patent on the UK Intellectual Property Office’s website. Note that you have to renew your patent each year for up to a maximum of 20 years. The patent application procedure can take nearly 5 years to complete before a patent is either granted or rejected.

The theft of intellectual property is no joke. When you are starting your new business it’s crucial that you protect every unique aspect of its operation. Taking steps now to protect your enterprises intellectual property is money well spent, as you never know when you may have to challenge another business that appears to be infringing on your copyright, trademark or patent.

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