How to Ensure Intellectual Property Compliance in Your Marketing Campaigns

Creating effective, eye-catching marketing campaigns that engage and convert customers is at the top of every marketer’s to-do list. But as we seek to design innovative, creative branded materials, promotional copy, and visual assets, it’s vital to consider intellectual property compliance to avoid committing—or becoming a victim of—infringement. 

Intellectual property, such as patents, copyright, and trademarks, are protected by laws and regulations that govern the ownership, use, and protection of these assets. They aim to safeguard original work from being stolen or used without permission. 

In this article, we’re going to explore the importance of intellectual property compliance and discuss some top tips to help you create marketing campaigns that are compliant and protected.

What is intellectual property?

Intellectual property (IP) is a label given to products of human intellect—that is, any intangible asset created using your mind. Common types of intellectual property used in marketing campaigns include patents (inventions), copyrighted materials (literature and artistry), and trademarks (brand names, logos, slogans, etc).

Let’s explore these IP categories in a little more depth.

Patents

A patent is a monopoly right that’s granted to protect new, useful, and non-obvious inventions, such as products, computer software, and business methods. It gives the inventor the legal, exclusive right to use, make, or sell the invention for a specific period of time in exchange for public disclosure. 

Once a patent has been granted, the product or its packaging should be patent-marked to mitigate the risk of intentional or accidental infringement. This means marking a product with its patent number or patent application number. While this responsibility typically falls to product and software development teams, marketers also have a duty to confirm patent statuses.

Patenting your product boosts sales effectiveness. It establishes your unique selling point and makes your product more desirable to customers, which you can use to create compelling promotional campaigns.

Copyright

Copyright protection grants authorship rights to original creations, preventing unauthorized parties from using, reproducing, or distributing the work without prior permission. In marketing campaigns, potentially copyrighted materials include written content, images, music, videos, and graphics.

Copyright infringement can occur when materials are used in marketing campaigns without permission or when the author isn’t credited for their work.

Trademarks 

A trademark is a sign that identifies and distinguishes a business’s goods and services, preventing it from being used or replicated by other brands. Common trademarks include words, logos, slogans, designs, colors, or a combination of these elements. 

For example, the Coca-Cola brand name and waving logo are instantly recognizable trademarks that would lead to copyright infringement if you were to use them in your marketing campaign. 

Other popular trademarks include Apple’s bitten apple logo, McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” slogan and jingle, and the iconic Tiffany Blue shade and Tiffany Blue Box, trademarked by Tiffany and Co.

Intellectual property has lots of business benefits. Social media, advertising, and landing page best practices all demand original, on-brand imagery and copy to curate a unique brand identity. Leveraging IP differentiates you from your competitors and infuses your personality into your promotional messaging, helping you build brand awareness, recognizability, and loyalty. 

Risk of non-compliance with intellectual property regulations

Taking measures to prevent unauthorized use of copyrighted materials and trademarked assets is just as important as protecting your own IP assets. This is because when you fail to comply with IP laws and regulations, you risk severe financial, legal, and reputational repercussions.

Financial and legal repercussions

Financial loss is perhaps the most substantial and immediate consequence of IP non-compliance.

If you’re the target of an infringement lawsuit, you’re looking at a costly legal battle. And, if you’re found guilty, you may face hefty fines, compensatory damages, licensing fees, and/or royalties. 

Depending on the severity of the infringement, this can accumulate to thousands—even millions—of dollars, which can lead to bankruptcy.

Take the famous Adidas vs Payless Shoes infringement case as a cautionary example.

Back in 2001, Adidas sued Payless Shoes for trademark infringement. Adidas alleged that the stripes on Payless Shoes’ footwear were “confusingly similar” to their iconic three-stripe logo. After a seven-year legal battle, Adidas secured one of the largest rewards granted in a trademark infringement lawsuit—an eye-watering $305 million settlement from Payless Shoes. 

This cements the importance of researching trademarks to avoid infringement—more on that later.

Brand reputation and credibility damage 

Curating a trustworthy and authentic brand identity matters now more than ever. In fact, 90% of customers say it’s important for the brands they use to be authentic—specifically, that they are honest, transparent, and consistent. 

Stealing another creator’s ideas or using their assets without their consent goes against the authenticity that customers demand. It can portray the offending business as disrespectful and fraudulent, leading to lost customer trust and loyalty. 

Plus, in the age of social media, news spreads fast. Word of your infringement can reach every corner of the internet, amplifying reputational damage and leading to lost credibility, business partnerships, sales, and customers.

Effective digital customer communications and social listening can help you mitigate the damage of accused infringement (after all, it can happen accidentally, or the claims may even be unsubstantial). However, the best way to remain authentic is to avoid offending entirely by enforcing strict IP compliance.

How to comply with IP regulations in your marketing campaigns

Now that you know the risks involved, it’s time to put measures in place to protect yourself when creating and using IP assets. Here are some key steps to ensure that your marketing campaigns comply with IP laws.

Ensure copyright law compliance

Copyright laws grant exclusive rights to the owner of any “original work of authorship”, preventing unauthorized persons from using, reproducing, or distributing the work. This includes website content, blog posts, advertising copy, photographs, illustrations, soundtracks, and videos.

Copyright infringement happens very frequently. YouTube’s Content ID tool identified 976.2 million undisputed cases of copyright infringement in the first half of 2023 alone.

While you can officially register materials with the Copyright Office, which gives you an extra layer of protection should you need to go to court, original works are automatically copyrighted and protected once published. 

Copyright durations vary by country. In the U.S., most copyrights last for 70 years after the creator’s death, at which point it enters the public domain.

Using another person’s copyrighted materials in your promotional campaigns and activities can lead to copyright infringement. To avoid falling foul, there are some steps that you can take to remain compliant:

• Get explicit permission from copyright owners before using their content.
• Obtain licenses for third-party content, such as stock photos.
• Attribute sources with a link to the original creator’s material.
• Understand and comply with fair use guidelines and limitations.
• Only use royalty-free or free-use images.
• Create original content.

Creating original content is the best way to mitigate copyright infringement. It also showcases your brand’s individuality, increasing brand awareness and making you more memorable. Placing unique brand identifiers in your images, such as your brand colors or logo, protects you against copyright infringement.

When creating original written content, such as blog posts and website copy, inject your brand’s personality into your messaging and use unique, long-tail, and branded keywords to make it truly unique. This not only helps to distinguish your copy from other promotional materials but it improves the SEO value of your marketing content, leading to more conversions. 

Exercise due diligence to avoid trademark infringement 

More often than not, intellectual property non-compliance is caused by a lack of due diligence and research. In other words, marketers simply fail to validate the trademark status of materials before they use them. 

Accidental infringement can also occur when marketers don’t consider whether the content they create bears a significant likeness to a trademarked material.

Preventing trademark infringement is particularly crucial for smaller businesses who are less likely to have the finances to fight a court battle. Take the lawsuit that Starbucks filed against New York’s Coffee Culture Cafe as an example.

Coffee Culture released a beverage called the “Freddocino” — a name that’s very similar to Starbucks’ “Frappucino”. The lawsuit document alleged that this similarity in name and the drinks’ deceptive packaging created customer confusion. 

The result? Coffee Culture settled out of court and was forced to discontinue the beverage. This may have saved them extortionate court fees, but the impact on their finances and productivity was still damning.

So, it’s vital that you exercise due diligence by thoroughly researching and analyzing every marketing material before you create, use, and distribute it. 

Use online databases to search for registered trademarks in your industry or market. On Trademarkia, for example, you can search over 12 million trademarks to ensure that the one you want to use is available and unique: 

Google, social media, and trade directories are also good places to search for unregistered trademarks and verify ownership and licensing statuses. 

Conduct regular IP audits

An IP audit involves reviewing and evaluating your intellectual property and IP management processes. It allows you to assess the value and validity of your IP assets, identify and resolve potential risks and vulnerabilities, and optimize your IP strategy, all of which strengthen IP compliance. 

A typical IP audit involves the following tasks:

• Identifying registered and unregistered IP assets that your company owns or uses. This includes owned patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other forms of IP. 
• Collecting relevant IP documentation such as copyright and trademark registrations, patent certificates, licensing agreements, contracts, and policies. 
• Reviewing these documents to determine ownership rights, legal status, validity, and regulatory compliance. For example, a trademark audit checks that your trademarks are properly registered, up-to-date, and being used correctly across your platforms.
• Verifying that third-party materials used in marketing campaigns adhere to copyright laws, fair use guidelines, licensing agreements, and permissions.
• Evaluating trademarks to verify that they remain distinctive, keeping an eye out for any potential conflicts or risks.
• Reviewing IP strategies, processes, and security.

Implement IP strategies, policies, and processes

Establishing strict IP policies and strategies ensures that everyone on your marketing team is aligned on how to manage, use, and protect IP assets. 

Here’s what you can do:

• Establish clear IP policies: Create internal documentation that dictates how marketing teams should use IP assets. This includes what steps they should take to protect original assets as well as how to use third-party content in campaigns. Outline what types of third-party they can use, what permissions they should obtain, and how content should be attributed.
• Implement and enforce strict documentation: Not only does proper documentation increase IP asset visibility (which streamlines IP management), but it can serve as evidence in the case of a dispute. Store and centralize relevant documents, such as traditional and electronic contracts like licensing agreements, and trademark registrations, in a secure location.
• Conduct regular employee training: Internal IP policies can be complex, and laws are always changing. To avoid accidental infringement, create regular training programs to educate marketing teams on new IP regulations and evolving policies.

Leverage tools and technology to streamline IP compliance

There are lots of different tools and technologies that you can use to streamline IP compliance, enhance IP asset visibility, improve productivity, and mitigate risks. 

Three standout tools used for IP management include: 

Intellectual property management software

AI-powered IP management software centralizes, tracks, and monitors your IP assets. This improves IP visibility and reduces risks. They can automate patent maintenance fee payments, manage licensing agreements, and send alerts about important deadlines, statuses, and potential infringement risks.

Content management solutions

These tools store all of your content in one place for easy access and management. So, you can see exactly which IP assets you’ve used, where they were used, and when. For example, tools for sales enablement can organize blogs, images, graphics, ad copy, and other assets into one location.

Trademark and copyright searching tools

These valuable tools streamline the process of searching for existing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. 

For example, using Trademarkia’s Copyrightable tool, you can search an extensive database of over 33 million copyrights. You can also register your trademarks and copyrights to protect your intellectual property. 

To improve the accessibility and accuracy of your data, all of the tools in your tech stack need to communicate with each other. One way to do this is by using application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect your software and eliminate data silos. There are lots of APIs available for use—or you can create your own, which can also be copyrighted. 

Explore API meaning in-depth and understand how to use and create them to improve intellectual property management.

Wrapping up

Compelling copy, images, logos, and other creative assets are the pillars of effective and engaging marketing campaigns. But to avoid infringement, you must take extra caution when you’re creating your branded materials, writing content, designing images, and using third-party materials.

Ensuring intellectual property compliance involves establishing policies and processes that align with patent, copyright, and trademark laws, such as only using copyrighted materials that you’ve gained explicit permission to use. Conduct regular audits to evaluate IP assets and use IP technologies to streamline IP management.

Crucially, don’t forget to thoroughly research copyrighted and trademarked materials to ensure that your creations are unique.