Chapter 5 Summary: Intellectual Property

Download the Employment Law Legal Checklist and identify action items for your organization.

Legal Checklist: Intellectual Property

Download

1. Intellectual property are assets of an individual or enterprise that are intangible. There are four kinds of intellectual property protections: trademarks, copyright, patents, and trade secrets.
2. In the process of protecting your nonprofit’s intellectual property rights, a good place to start is knowing who owns the intellectual property of your organization’s key elements.
3. Nonprofits need to respect the intellectual property rights of others, just as you want others to honor the intellectual property rights of your organization. Intellectual property litigation is expensive. Adopt a policy that respects the intellectual property rights of others, which includes searching to see if others have adopted intellectual property similar to your organization’s prior to your adoption.
4. The general public wants to know how you are going to use the information given to your organization, particularly if gathered through a website. A privacy policy keeps web communication honest by telling visitors about the collection, storage, and use of their information.
5. Your nonprofit’s online presence opens the door for intellectual property challenges, both in how you use the information from others and how others make use of your information.