Business Ethics and Policies: Intellectual Property Protection in Asia

This report delves into the critical importance of protecting intellectual property (IP) within businesses, particularly in the context of operating in Asia. It emphasizes the significance of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, highlighting their role in safeguarding a company's unique identity, formulas, and competitive advantages. The report explores the positive and negative factors associated with conducting business in Asia, including the impact of leadership styles on IP protection and the challenges posed by cybercrime. It outlines best practices for maintaining IP protection, such as securing data, employee training, maintaining records, and utilizing encryption. The report concludes that businesses must proactively implement these measures to navigate the complexities of the Asian market and ensure the long-term security and success of their IP assets.

Assignment

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Innovation refers to changing systems or process in order to increase the efficiency of
business operations. It is very useful in growth and development of business. Innovation is
brought by leaders by implementing new ideas that enhances business functioning. Information
technology provides easy handling of all operations and integrating the overall efforts. But there
are some standards that have to be followed while making innovations in IT systems. Also, some
rules and regulations have to be followed to secure the systems. Leaders are responsible for
protecting the intellectual property, patent, copyrights, etc. This helps in preventing the misuse of
all these resources. For a business, these resources are very important as it provides a unique
identity to them. Also, it contains the methods and process that business performs. This
assignment will throw light on different ethics, rights, etc. and policies relating to them.
Moreover, what are the positive and negative factors of operating in Asia. Also, how policies are
developed by leaders in business to protect patents and trademarks will be elucidated.
MAIN BODY
It is very important for a business to protect its patent, copyrights, trademarks, etc.
because it contains secret formulas and methods through which business operations are done.
Also, it contains the various rights and intellectual property of business that helps in growth and
development. Intellectual property is term used to cover goods and services that are protected
under the government laws and regulations. Intellectual property, (2018). It includes patents,
copyrights, trademarks, etc. Generally, they differ in every country and what they protect.
Patents protect an inventor rights to restrict from using inventor's invention. Trademarks describe
the brand name, website, logo, etc. of business. Copyrights protect the software, literary work,
etc. Also, trade secrets contain confidential information that gives business a competitive
advantage over its rivals. It consists of business plans, designs, procedures, etc. Leadership style
affects the working of business operations in different regions. There are various laws developed
to protect the trade secrets of company. Also, many issues are been faced by company in Asia
due to inappropriate leadership style. These are described below-
The internal system that operate the operations of business and the social and political
impact of patent system. It describes the issues faced by them. Also, these systems are now
marked by apprehension and unease. It has now become more publicly. It is because government
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is not able to deal with policy issues to grant rights of patents by using some new technology. It
may limit both the public domain and competition. These issues arise in protecting IP. Also, it
affects the business operations and reduces brand image in the market. Also, due to failure of
leadership style in Asian countries company have lost trade secrets.
Positive factors- The positive factors to operate in Asia are there are strict policies and
procedures of maintaining IP rights of company.
 Also, the leadership style followed by leader varies according to situation. So this gives
an advantage to protect patents , trademarks, etc. of company. Moreover, cyber crimes
are less as compared to European countries.
 Most of the operations are held directly with suppliers so it becomes easy for company to
restrict the use of third party. Best Practices for Maintaining Intellectual Property
Protection. (2016).
Negative factors- In recent times cyber crime has increased in Asian markets due to growth of
various companies.
 Also, due to non availability of advanced technology companies are not able to secure its
data and information.
 The leaders follow same leadership style despite of change in situation. This affects the
business operations and employees efficiency. Moreover, due to lack of training
employees are not able to understand changes in systems
 The leadership style used by Asian and European leaders differs to great extent. This
highly affects the organisational culture due to communication style.
Trade secrets- They are also called as intellectual property that consist of any special formula,
method,, process which gives business competitive advantage over its competitors. For
example- software, ingredients, etc.
Example of lost of trade secret in Asia- US companies have pulled out their business from China
due to various issues related to trade secrets. It is because leaders are not able to kept trade
secrets of company. Also, ineffective training of employees have resulted in cyber attacks. With
this companies are not able to protect their IP.
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Professional ethics- It consists of standards of personal behaviour of professionals within an
organisation. This helps in guiding employees to perform their roles.
Security risk- It refers to use of any malicious activity that can affect the business.
Property rights- It is related to specific resources that are owned by business. It helps in
determining the rights of business to hold, sell, etc. their property
In order to protect the trade secrets of company leaders must take various steps for this.
This will increase the efficiency of leaders in company and they will be able to implement
effective IT system by complaining with ethical and social policies of Asian government. The
leaders can implement certain factors that are described below:- Protecting intellectual property
rights through information policy, Karthik Raman, (2004).
 Lock it up- It means locking the rooms or location where the data is stored. Also, locking
the system or database where sensitive data is been kept. It will be useful in keeping
employees away from using it. Also, keep tracks of person who are using it and have got
the passwords. Leaders can lock company data that will help in operating in Asia.
 Training and communication - It will be very useful in protecting the IP of business.
This is carried out to make aware employees about the patents and trademarks of
company . By giving them training about various tools used for preventing IP leaks, it
will help in effective working with IT systems. Leaders can provide training to
employees on how to protect the data. This will help company operate in Asia.
 Maintain records and policies- It refers to maintaining the records that show IP
ownership, licenses, etc. that will help in defending company in case of any incident.
Also, policies describe the behaviour of employees and others. Leaders can maintain
records of enterprise relating to changes that occurred in Asia.
 Security and encryption- While developing IT system, company must consider its IP
rights. This will help them to design the structure of IT systems. Moreover, applying
strong encrypted devices will be useful in protecting the system and breaching of any
policies.
 Know your partners- It is very essential to know who are your business partners so that
it is easy to develop IT systems. It must be made sure that they can be trusted in
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protecting IP. Furthermore, it requires that partners must follow the practices to protect
IP.
 Taking action- In case of happening of any incident business must take effective actions
to ensure it never happens in the future. This will be helpful in finding out the root cause
of problem. Also, with this effective measures will be taken and security of systems will
be improved.
These practices offer a good framework to establish and maintain a good sound IP
protection system. It will be beneficial for a company to deal with various incidents of IT
security breaches. Moreover, by making innovation in these systems the business can deal with
changing environment.
CONCLUSION
From this assignment, it is concluded that a business must protect its patent, copyrights,
trademarks, etc. because it contains secret formulas and methods through which the business
operations are done. There are various laws developed to protect the trade secrets of company.
In order to protect the intellectual property of business, various steps are taken for this. By
following certain practices such as training and communication, maintaining records and
policies, security and encryption, etc. IP rights can be protected. These practices offer a good
framework to establish and maintain a good sound IP protection system.
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REFERENCES:
Online:
Best Practices for Maintaining Intellectual Property Protection. (2016). [Online] Available
Through: <https://create.org/news/best-practices-maintaining-intellectual-property-
protection/>.
Intellectual property, (2018). [Online] Available through:
<https://www.mccarter.com/Intellectual-PropertyInformation-Technology-Practice/>
Protecting intellectual property rights through information policy, Karthik Raman, (2004).
[Online] Available through: <http://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1008537>
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