he term "intellectual property" is all-encompassing,   covering patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, unfair competition and the right of publicity. Examples of intellectual property include inventions, company and product names, ways of doing business, customer lists, software programs and just about anything else that gives your company a commercial advantage over your competitors.

The primary reasons your company should consider protecting intellectual property are three fold: (1) to commercialize inventions and innovations, (2) to protect the products of your company's hard work, and (3) to protect against lawsuits.

There is a common misconception that only large companies need to worry about protecting intellectual property assets. This may be due to the fact that cases involving these companies are the cases that usually attract media attention. For example, an article recently appeared in this paper involving perhaps the most famous and carefully guarded trade secret in history - the COKE® formula. A disgruntled heir to the Coca Cola family claims he has access to the formula and wants to sell it. If this secret recipe is divulged, it could have serious consequences for Coca Cola.

However, protecting intellectual property assets is equally important for small businesses, including those that are family owned and operated. For example, a few years ago a small day care center in Wisconsin decided to spruce up its facilities. It commissioned an artist to paint a mural of Disney characters at a cost of a few hundred dollars. Shortly after hearing of this, the Mouse descended from his throne in Los Angeles and forced the center to paint over the mural at its own expense. The day care center used Disney's copyrighted designs without permission.

In another instance, a small independent computer store started selling products using a trademark which turned out to be nearly identical to a trademark of a competitor. The competitor had previously registered its mark before the U.S. Trademark Office. One year, a lawsuit and $25,000 later, the computer store had to change its name. A simple trademark search could have saved the store a lot of money and heartache.

These are just a few examples of what can go wrong if you do not protect your company's intellectual property assets. The size or type of company does not matter.