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Typical Situations
The more valuable the intellectual
property assets of your
SME, the greater the possibility that others would want
to make use of them, if possible, without having to pay for them. Do you have a
strategy to prevent this? If despite your best efforts, someone is imitating,
copying or infringing the intellectual property rights of your SME without your
authorization, then what should you do? What are your options? How do you weigh
the costs and benefits of various alternatives? Or would you simply rush to
court?
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You have the option to "ignore" the
violation of the IP rights of your SME if the loss of income, sales or profits
appears to be negligible from your point of view. If the scale of violation is
already significant or will soon be so, then you must find out, as soon as
possible, the culprits and deal with them expeditiously but methodically. At
other times, however, you may be accused of stealing or infringing the IP rights
of someone else intentionally or unknowingly.
If you have a dispute with a party to
a contract with your SME, or a dispute in a business venture where there is no
contract, it would be prudent to have included special provision in the
pre-existing contract (if there is one) or, alternatively, to make a contract
after the dispute arises, for the dispute to be referred for
arbitration or
mediation.
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In those situations where there is an
alleged infringement or a dispute, before taking any formal action, it would be
prudent to seek legal counsel from a competent IP professional to more
accurately assess the likelihood of a favorable outcome for your
SME, at the
lowest possible cost. The cost could be calculated in terms of the time that may
be taken to obtain such a decision, the fees that you would have to pay to the
court(s) and to your attorney(s), and the direct and indirect costs of
alternatives that you would have to explore and follow in the event of a
negative decision. You also have to assess the chances of winning your case, the
amount of compensation and damages that you can reasonably expect to get from
the infringing party as well as the likelihood and extent of reimbursement of
attorney’s fees in case the final decision is in your favor.
It is obvious that dealing with these
kinds of situations requires a careful weighing of the pros and cons of
different alternatives.
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