In this article, we take a look at intellectual property rights and, in particular, how they can be best be utilised for business growth and protection in the context of farms and rural business.
What Is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property, or IP, is a general term which describes intangible assets. All businesses have IP, regardless of what sector a business is operating within, and examples of IP include copyright, trade marks, patents, design rights and many more. These assets, although not physical, add value to a business and help them to achieve their goals. Having a clear plan for how to deal with IP is essential, and many businesses fail to take advantage of the tools in the IP toolkit until it is too late.
There is a tendency for businesses to dismiss IP, or not engage with it, because they think it's more about creating opportunities for litigation. However, the key is to look at it through the lens of how intellectual property can add value and instead consider IP as an asset which can be used to generate revenue for your business.
The farming and rural sector is currently undergoing huge changes and, as a result, it is expected that more farms and rural businesses will inevitably look to diversify. When it comes to diversification, for most businesses the key intellectual property is going to be brand, which in legal terms we refer to as trademark and copyright. Brand is a way of protecting the farm name, the names of products that you produce and the names of services that you generate.
It's the way in which the law creates a monopoly in a brand, a name, a logo or a get up.
How Can Farming Businesses Make The Most Of Their Brand?
Farms and rural businesses may be failing to make the most of the opportunities that they have to capitalise on the narrative of their products. Non-farming businesses are looking to increase sales by using imagery and text to create an impression that their products have a rural provenance or originate from a family business, a practice known as "Farmwashing."
Despite this, many rural businesses which do have this genuine background, are not taking advantage of this opportunity in their branding and marketing. Often farming and rural businesses fail to take control over their brand because they do not register their trade marks (e.g. product and farm names). Businesses should be looking at how their brands can add value to the work they do and step one in this process is to take ownership of their brands through trade mark registration.
Trade Marks
Trade mark registrations are a way in which businesses can take ownership of their reputation and of the brands that they are using. By obtaining trade mark registrations, businesses can create assets which can add value to their business. Businesses focus on developing their reputation every day they trade. Whether it is goods, such as the products that they are putting onto store shelves, the services that they offer, such as holiday lettings on their rural property, or simply the distinctive name of the farm itself. For many businesses that reputation will be one of, if not their most, valuable assets. Trademarks are the way the law says we can ring fence that, we can identify what that reputation is and we can package it up into an asset which you as a business can do things with.
Historically, the farming sector gave rise to some of the earliest trad marks and initiated the development of much of the trade mark law we still see today. Early trade marks involved branding cattle, with the brands designed to protect the consumer just as much as they were intended to protect a business, they would educate the purchaser of the quality of the livestock and provide reassurance as to how it had been cared for and reared. As a result of the brand, a buyer would understand the quality of what they were buying. Brands still serve this function today, operating not just as a marketing tool, but also as a form of quality assurance.
However, despite this long history, and that some of the most well-known, and hence valuable, brand identities on our supermarket shelves are farming brands, it is something that is considerably underutilised in this sector. By not taking control over their brands, farming businesses are missing out. In a time when farmers are struggling financially and consumers are increasingly valuing local produce, it essential that farming businesses develop and protect their brand identities, by way of trade mark registration, to make the most of their unique place in the market.
Copyright
Copyright also has a part to play and can protect written communications, websites, or even software code. Copyright doesn't protect ideas, but it protects the way that you manifest and express those ideas. For example, where a rural business has diversified to provide holiday lets via a website, copyright might exist not only in the website design itself, but also in the software code behind the booking systems created.
A key thing with copyright is being aware that it's there. It runs through so much and it has a value. However, rural businesses must also understand that when they engage with third parties, issues around the ownership of any copyright generated can arise. It is therefore essential that rural and farming businesses explore their connections with any third parties, whether they be marketing companies, packaging designers, website designers or whoever it may be, to make sure that it is clear where the ownership of the asset ultimately sits.
When Should Farm Businesses Consider Protecting Their IP?
Generally, businesses across all sectors engage with IP a little late in the day, often in reaction to something that's happened, rather than proactively. However, in order to effectively protect these important assets, it is essential that farms and rural businesses engage positively and proactively with the IP system.
There are many triggers that would have a business in this sector engage with intellectual property, in particular:
New Service Lines - Businesses who are, for example, diversifying into things like holiday lets or providing a wedding venue are starting to create brands to take to market. Those businesses will need to consider the IP in that brand and register those brands accordingly.
New Product Lines - Businesses engaging in new product lines, such as product development for food and drink products, will also be producing brands that they need to protect. However, they should also consider copyright, for example in relation to the recipes that they have painstakingly developed.
Generation Change - We also often see the need for consideration of IP when there's a generational change across farming businesses and there is a different focus moving forward on brand, reputation and where that can be generating value. As part of any review of the assets of a business, it is important to also understand the intangible IP assets that are there and that could be used to generate value.
Three key IP takeaways for farming and rural businesses
Identify the brands that you are using and register those brands as trade marks
Don't assume, because of trading history or because of household brand name status, that everything is in hand from a branding point of view. Check the brands that you are using and register them accordingly.
As discussed, consumers value the association with a rural setting. Consider taking advantage of this value, by using clever branding and trade mark registration, to ensure consumers associate your products and services with the rural setting that they originate from.
Be proactive
Don't wait until the wheels have come off, take ownership of these assets upfront. Consider, not just your registrations, but also about where you collaborate with third parties as ownership issues may exist.
Shift your perspective
Don't consider IP as a cost. Don't consider IP just as a tool for litigation. Think about IP as a value-add to your business. Ideally, you want to be taking the plan for the business and creating an IP strategy which accurately dovetails with that.
Taking control of your brand is crucial to maximising revenue in your business and trademarks and IP are very much about creating a legal asset in your brand.
About the Author - Robert Davies is a Managing Associate at Foot Anstey LLP and there Intellectual Property experts are available to support you in your journey and assist you in taking control from a legal point of view. Please get in touch via their website here to find out more.
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