Work with a law firm that is familiar with how to protect product intellectual property around the world (especially in the region where your contractors are located), and ask them to assist you in determining what kinds of agreements you need to create and how you can later enforce them.

• Additionally, you have the option of actively registering trademarks and/or patents in the countries in which you conduct business

• For example, even if you have registered your trademarks at home, supplier inspection services is still important to register them abroad because foreign governments do not always recognize domestic trademarks

• One example of such a firm is the law firm that maintains the website known as "Law Blog

1. Make sure that your entire design is kept under wraps, and only provide information to your vendors based on a "need to know" basis.

It is in your best interest to prevent different providers from gaining access to all of the information that pertains to your product. If you have a positive working relationship with, for example, your manufacturer, it may feel natural to provide them with all of the information; however, in order to protect the confidentiality of your intellectual property, you may need to behave in a more cautious manner.

During the process of introducing a new product, you should make it a point to provide each outsourcer with only the information that they require in order to complete the required work. This may include specific specifications, materials or components, and physical requirements. Because of this, it will be necessary for you to remove or redact certain parts that they do not require in order to prevent them from having access to all of the information that is required to reproduce the product.

However, you will need to be very methodical and carefully monitor the information that is provided to ensure that you do not remove any essential information in the process of 'hiding' information that they do not require.

They cannot be expected to do a good job if there is no context provided regarding the manner in which the product will be used, the conditions under which it will be used, which aspects of performance are most important, and so on.

2. When choosing your manufacturer, stay away from ODMs and OEMs as much as you possibly can.

You will be required to communicate a significant amount of the design information to the manufacturer who will be responsible for the assembly and testing. Perhaps they can perform the design review, offer assistance with some DFM tasks, and so on. In addition, it is possible that the risk will be reduced if they are a contract manufacturer rather than an OEM or, even riskier, an ODM.

3. Beginning with a "niche" product makes it simpler to protect intellectual property.

The ability to copy your product will be much less valuable to another company if your product is designed for a market that is considered to be a niche market and if you already have the marketing assets necessary to reach that niche market. This is because the other company would find it difficult to reach your market and would find the small niche to be unappealing. It is possible to begin with a specific market segment and then expand beyond that segment; for an example, see what author Geoffrey Moore refers to as a "beachhead" in his book "Crossing the Chasm."

4. Launch your new product quickly to avoid having outsourcers use your intellectual property.

In the past, it was often sufficient to fend off any challenge from your competitors simply by launching your new product as quickly as possible and being the first-to-market, despite the risk of your competitors copying your intellectual property (IP).

If a new kind of product is introduced to the market and consumers like it, the first one of its kind to appear on the market may get the lion's share of sales. There is still a possibility that this strategy is successful. However, in this day and age, it is a quick process to take your intellectual property and make a direct copy of it or something that is close, and in some cases, suppliers may be selling 'your product' prior to the launch of your own before yours has even occurred. The same principle applies to your brand-new website! Being the first to market no longer confers the same competitive advantage it once did because there is no upper limit on what can be cloned and used against you.