You’ll do it through business success—by creating products and services that customers choose, use, and value over what already exists. Keep your eyes on the horizon, but view it through the lens of what your customers will need and what you can offer.
Patents (or at this early stage, patent applications) should connect directly to the company’s potential products and services.
Trademarks should serve as the distinctive symbols of these offerings—signals of investment in customer relationships and brand value.
Copyrights should cover the literary works, images, designs, and software that represent your business—or, in businesses like SaaS or entertainment/media, that may actually be the business.
Trade secrets, often deeply ingrained in the company’s culture, may be the earliest and most essential markers of how you relate to customers, how your technologies evolved, and what you’ve learned in the marketplace.
If your company is at an early stage, keep the business lens front and center as you build your IP portfolio. Your assets reflect what you’re achieving now, but they also point to the company’s future value. Even if your current business appears small, your IP can foreshadow its long-term potential.
If your research team has identified a breakthrough technology, how will it translate into products or services that resonate with customers?
If you don’t yet have customers or products, revisit your company’s origin story: what problems inspired you, how does your research address them, and who else could benefit?