Intellectual property

Intellectual Property is a collection of legal rights that provide control over the availability and use of skills, creativity, resources and technology and gives the owner or his licensee a competitive advantage. To the contrary of what is generally believed, IP is not limited to patent applications. There are many other IP rights, protecting different types of creations.

Overview of Intellectual Property rights

Since IP can be one of the sources of your competitive advantage, it should not be overlooked. It is essential to protect your IP, but also to optimize the exploitation of these rights by others.  However, the process of protecting your IP right is time and resource consuming. Therefore, lifetech.brussels can support you trough this process. We can :

• give you a first overview on the aspects you should be  aware of if you want to consolidate this competitive advantage based on IP
• bring you in contact with of experts who belong to our network
• help you identify sources of funding to finance your IP.

For instance, the Brussels Capital Region supports you in the protection of your IP

• Subsidies for patent applications
• Subsidies for consulants (applicable to patent attorneys or lawyers specialized in IP)

Furthermore, Belgium has a particularly favorable tax regime for companies active in Research and Development activities and protecting their intellectual property.

Other resources on the topic :

• Belgian Office for Intellectual Property
• Benelux Office for intellectual Property
• Ideas Matter
• Belgian Office for Intellectual Property: to protect, but also to inform!