Before we go any further, let’s say something about Intellectual Property first. Intellectual Property, or IP, is a way of protecting anything original someone invents or creates. People and companies can do this in more ways than one, but the importance of IP is unquestionable. IP is an umbrella term for numerous categories and ways of intellectual property protection.
So, it’s important to distinguish the difference between tangible and intangible assets. On the one hand, tangible assets include everything existing in the physical world, such as vehicles, machines, equipment, offices, and money. On the other hand, intangible assets include everything nonexistent in the physical world, such as intellectual properties and the company’s reputation, also known as goodwill.
Therefore, IP is an intangible asset of a company. Because of their nature, intangible assets are harder to protect from theft. That’s exactly the point of IP, and it achieves asset security in various ways.
How Intellectual Property Works
With many ideas and inventions shared all around the globe, now more than ever, companies emphasize the importance of intellectual property since they could risk their economy, financial status, and overall company reputation otherwise.
Even though IP is an intangible asset, it’s usually much more valuable than any tangible asset the companies own. So, keeping an IP protected is one of the most important and challenging tasks of every company.
Patent
As the name says, this is a way to protect a patent – an idea, a process, an invention. You don’t have to own a company to patent something. Nevertheless, anyone owning a patent has the ultimate power to choose how or whether their idea will be implemented into reality. So, any company can make this patent, but only with the approval of the patent owner.
Trademark
Unlike patents, trademarks are owned only by one company and used for protecting brands and their logos, symbols, or slogans. It’s probably the most recognizable IP, and companies are usually known for their specific brand or logo they successfully trademarked. Because of this, companies invest a lot of money and effort into protecting their trademarks.
Copyright
With its suggestive name, authors of copyrighted materials have the right to copy and use their creations. Further, copyright includes artistic works such as musical creations, written creations, paintings, or some other unique works such as advertisements, computer programs, etc. However, the difference with copyright is that the author can give others legal authorization to use their creations freely.
Also Read: How to Protect IoT Devices Using VPN on Home Router
Dangers to Intellectual Property
However, it doesn’t matter how well-protected the Intellectual Properties of a company are – there are still some dangers that companies face daily. Some of these include theft and information leaking.
Something even big companies struggle with is the risk of availability. With every IP, there has to be a golden middle between making all necessary information available and easily accessible for those interested and keeping it secure, private, and well-protected from any possible thefts.
Many companies fall victim to IP theft without even knowing. With the black market, patents, copyrights, and trademarks are all equally violated. Only when it’s too late do the companies realize it, but most of them cannot find a trace that will lead them to the person or company committing the crime. With this, numerous brands are negatively affected, and the company economy suffers.
In addition to this, many companies struggle with information leaking. To find out how the information got out is quite challenging and time-consuming. Even if they find out, the legal costs and insufficient amount of evidence usually keep them away from victory over crime.
Why You Should Use Scraping and Proxies to Protect Your IP
Because of these reasons and many more, it’s crucial to invest in intellectual property protection. By monitoring it at all times, illegal activities are immediately spotted as soon as they start developing.
By using web scraping in combination with proxies, each person or company can track and trace their IP. With this, companies have an easy, simple, but very efficient solution to keep every patent, trademark, or copyrighted product protected and secured.
Web scraping uses software to run through an immense amount of data, links, and websites to find any image screening or text scraping proof. That way, you can be immediately alerted if someone is trying to use your creation as their own. Also, by using proxy servers that provide you with more IP addresses, you are protected from websites that can identify and block you from using web scraping.
Conclusion
To conclude, our main aim is to highlight the importance of Intellectual Property protection. Today, everything is available online, and companies are struggling to protect valuable data that keep their businesses running. That’s why web scraping and proxy servers are crucial to ensuring each original idea is secured and protected in all possible ways.
