8. Mistakes to avoid

8.1 Don't neglect the protection of your IP assets

The main mistake would be to totally neglect intellectual property by refraining from protecting your creations, notably for reasons that are certainly audible in terms of cost, but which could backfire on you, because :

• you may be obliged to stop a third party using your innovation if they have filed a patent;

• you may be obliged to stop using a sign that has been registered by a third party, even if you've been using it for several years (no right of use in France), and thus be forced to change your name (product, company, etc.) and have to redo all your marketing communications around this name (website, marketing materials, social networks, domain...