Are beautiful minds a business risk?
3 June 2008
Intellectual property (IP) is one of those terms that is somewhat ambiguous as to what is actually defined as someone’s ‘intellectual property’.
General connotations of literary works, musical lyrics, artistic photographs and paintings all fall under the term, but what about brand names, software and other inventive products and schemes that make companies millions?
When it comes to protecting these concepts from plagiarism, it is something that organisations need to start thinking about.
Paul Cumberland, of the Professional Liability Division at Lloyd’s insurer Markel, said: “We view intellectual property as those intangible assets that have been registered with the relevant authority or are otherwise enshrined in law with the result that they are legally owned by the individual or a company. As such there are legal and commercial consequences if this intellectual property is misappropriated by another company.”
“This is something that corporate organizations need to get wise to. Physical property such as buildings, contents or stock are insured without question as standard, yet these might only form a fraction of a company’s total worth, so why not insure that element that has intangible worth. It is a niche line of business but enquiries are increasing thick and fast.”
Providing the market with an innovative policy cover, Markel is one of the market leaders in this class of business.
“At Markel, we provide an intellectual property litigation insurance policy, which is multi-sectional and unique,” Cumberland said. “Our insurance policy is designed to cover all areas of risk and exposure that arise from dealing in and with intellectual property but also to allow the insured to specifically tailor their own specific coverage needs.”
Clients can select cover under any of the following six sections under Markel’s Intellectual Property Litigation Insurance policy:
- Licensing – if the inventor/designer does not have the financial assets to distribute or manufacture the product.
- Dispute – contractual disputes between the licensee and the licensor.
- First Party Defense – covers legal costs directly against owner rather than licensee.
- First Party Pursuit – covers costs of enforcement with a genuine reasonable chance of success.
- Investigation cost – prior to claim.
- Directors and Officers (D&O) – a number of D&O policies exclude Intellectual Property but this policy fills the gap.
Last updated on 03 Jun 2008
