So much of technology revolves around intellectual property. It’s a world where more things are digital than are physical and ideas hold the most sway. Everyone has access to each other’s information (unless the appropriate safeguards are up). Sometimes, it feels like no IP is safe on the Internet, but there are safeguards available for businesses and individuals who want to protect their creations or their companies.

1. Non-Disclosure Agreements

These can be difficult to create, but they are key to protecting your business. Use non-disclosure agreements to establish rules between yourself and employees, volunteers, or clients. Unless you tell those, you interact with what they are and aren’t allowed to talk about or post, they’re probably going to talk about it, post about it, or write about it at some point. Ensure that the inner workings of your business are safe by signing those who know them to these contracts. You can also ensure that you own certain property by using a non-disclosure agreement to eliminate any grey area in ownership.

2. Know Trademark Law

If you don’t know trademark law find someone who does. Trademark seems to be the simpler category of IP, however, don’t let that deceive you. If you want to establish a clear claim on something you consider to be a trademark, make sure you work it out with a trademark attorney. You don’t want to lay claim to something that actually belongs to someone else, and you don’t want bigger companies to capitalize on your unprotected designs.

3. Keep Track of YouTube

If your IP includes anything visual or auditory, frequently check YouTube to see if anything that belongs to you is on there. YouTube will take videos down for copyright infringement, but you often need to find the videos yourself. Big corporations tend to hire people specifically for the purpose of finding and removing these videos. However, if you belong to a smaller company, you may have to do this yourself. Keep in mind that things like your websites, phone calls, or emails may find themselves on YouTube somehow. Check, but you should be able to request YouTube to take your IP down.

4. Get Copyrights

Even websites have copyrights. If you have a web developer making websites for you, make sure they sign the rights for the website over to you. Otherwise, you’ll be using a website in your posts and advertisements that don’t actually belong to you and jeopardize your legal safety.

5. Be Careful with Fair Use

Implement fair use content sparingly. Do not expect the benefit of the doubt. If owners, especially well-known owners, learn that you’re using their content, there will be repercussions. Play it safe with this one because even though you may be making a family video or an advertisement in a small town, you never know when something will go viral.

6. Identify Your Trade Secrets and Protect Them

Discover what gives your company an edge that isn’t common knowledge. If you’ve discovered a better way to run a tech company, keep that information to yourself (unless you’re feeling altruistic). Not only that, make sure that your employees know not to share the information. It’s difficult to keep trade secrets if they haven’t been identified as trade secrets and written into a non-disclosure agreement.

7. Know Your Competition

In order to know what’s truly your IP, you need to know what the competition is doing. You can’t trademark, copyright, or patent content that already belongs to someone else even if you didn’t know it belonged to someone else. For that reason, know what the other companies are doing and avoid it. Discover your own unique, own-able way of doing things.

Intellectual property tends to be a fuzzy gray space in business. Hopefully, you’ve learned how to prevent that. Be willing to claim what belongs to you and capitalize on it. Owning your IP won’t happen accidentally, but it will be a lengthy, deliberate process.