The two main areas to consider are protecting your IP before you lose the chance, and managing risk associated with something new out on to the market.

Protecting your IP

This should be part of a plan that goes hand in hand with your technology / product development pathway. So it shouldn’t be something that is only thought about coming up to launch. In fact, by the time you’re preparing to launch, any protections measures should be in place and you should be just polishing and double checking things from an IP protection perspective.

Managing risks

Do you have freedom to operate? How do you know?

What level of patent clearance has been done? What level is appropriate for this offering?

Have you undertaken a scan for registered and common law trade marks in your target market?

How confident are you that no copyright material has been caught up in your new offering (including software code)?

What about registered designs (design patents) and other IP rights?

What strategies have you put in place to mitigate risk where something unexpected occurs?