Most of your customers do not buy your intellectual property rights. They buy your solution to their problem at their conditions. IP still matters for protection, but what do they protect from your customer’s point of view?
Customers have problems that they want you to solve. Do it faster, cheaper, better. That's why they come to you specifically.
A patent protects your technical solution. It protects how you solve that problem.
The customer in general does not care about how you solve it. The patent just protects you from being copied so that the customer comes to you instead of your competitors. Moreover, it protects your investment to find the solution and you do not want your competitor to gain access to the solution without the investment.
Oftentimes customers rely on the reputation of their supplier. They had good or bad experiences or heard somehing good or bad about... Yeah, about what? Sometimes about a person (good doctor, lawyer), but more often about a brand: Mercedes makes good cars or bad ones for that matter.
In that sense, a trademark acts as a marker through which the market identifies and attributes value.
Trademarks label your company so that the market can identify you and grow an understanding that you are good, bad, cool, cheap, etc.
Before customers read a single spec, they see your product. The look, the shape, what it feels like to the touch. They get an impression in seconds, and often that first impression is why they choose you.
A design protects how your product looks. It protects the shape and the appearance you give it.
The customer in general does not analyse why a product appeals to them, they just respond to it. The design just protects you from being copied so that the look stays yours. Moreover, it protects the work you put into that appearance and you do not want your competitor to have the image without the creative effort.
Patents, trademarks, and designs protect different things: the solution, the trust, and the image. But they share one purpose, which is to protect the value a customer sees in your business. Seen this way, IP stops being a legal cost and becomes what it really is: a way to defend what keeps your customers coming back.
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