The IP Value of Business Plans—Protection For The Entrepreneur

The England and Wales High Court recently explained that the elements of a business plan had to be analysed to support an award of damages for professional negligence against the defendant, Mr. Ball's former lawyers and those who failed to protect his interests in the subject matter of the business plan. Ball v. Druces & Attlee (a law firm) [2004] EWHC 1402 (QB).

A business plan is rarely thought of as being valuable because of the protectable IP rights contained and embodied in it. While such a plan is usually treated as confidential if disclosed through a non-disclosure agreement, it is usually considered as a vehicle to raise money and not as intrinsically valuable in its own right. The basis of the value of the underlying ideas in a business plan is rarely analysed.

Ball was co-founder of The Eden Project, an international award winning environmental tourist attraction near St. Austell, Cornwall England. He and his co-founder developed the concept of the project in a long business plan which was used as the basis for funding. Mr. Ball and his co-founder, Mr. Smit, were the originators of the name and logo for The Eden Project, which, at the time...