Protecting the Intellectual Property of Autistic Entrepreneurs

The inventive skills of autistic individuals are well documented (Chin, 2025; Baron-Cohen, 2020). While autistic individuals have this ability, they face unique challenges in protecting their intellectual property. This is because when starting a business autistic entrepreneurs often struggle with social interaction and networking (Knott, 2018, p. 45), and the need to concentrate on management tasks (Ives, 2024, p. 17) instead of their area of focussed and passionate interest (Murray et al., 2005). To address these issues autistic entrepreneurs often seek out non-autistic business partners and outsource tasks to contractors. There is a unique challenge for autistic entrepreneurs in working with others, as research has shown that autistic people are more easily taken advantage of and manipulated than non-autistic people (Gibbs and Pellicano, 2023). They are also more inclined to not know what is going on until it is too late, and they are less able to defend themselves (Gibbs and Pellicano, 2023). To address this vulnerability, it is recommended that ways be developed to improve the personal safety of autistic people (Gibbs and Pellicano, 2023). This webinar aims to improve the personal safety of autistic entrepreneurs by providing autistic entrepreneurs with knowledge about how they can protect their intellectual property when working with others.