Did your business leave money on the table this year? Let’s look at whether you maximized the value of your intellectual property or let its value decrease.
All creators and small business owners have intellectual property. Your brand name, logo, slogan, special formula, innovative packaging, videos, brochures, etc., those are all intellectual property. They can make money for you if they’re managed well, and they can cause horror and cost you almost everything if they’re not. I’ll go over some tips on how to deter disaster and increase your income with intellectual property.
The four core types of intellectual property are copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. Think of them as the four pillars that support the entire value of your company. Not giving them proper attention is a grave mistake that can turn your thriving business into a zombified shell of itself.
Let’s take a quick look at what each of them protects and at some dos and don’ts to keep you rocking.
Pillar 1: Copyright
Copyright is the pillar that protects your creative work. Creative doesn’t always mean artistic. For copyright it means something written, drawn, sculpted, recorded, and more. Books, blog posts, training videos, original Instagram posts, jingles, marketing copy, whitepapers–those are all copyrightable material.
One of the cool things about copyright is that some copyright rights exist the instant you create the material. Who the author is and who owns the rights are subjects of some of my other posts. Unfortunately, these initial rights are limited. Relying only on them is a quick path to copyright cursedness.
Here’s the most important thing to do to avoid copyright terror and make the copyright rights a valuable business asset: You need to register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office to have the maximum rights, including the ability to sue for infringement in federal court and have documentation that supports internet takedowns of infringing material.
Registration is your first line of defense, especially against those zombie AI algorithms feeding off your content.
A registered copyright gives you proof of ownership that can be officially transferred if you want to sell it to someone else, or that can support licensing it to someone who wants to pay you money to use it.
Pillar 2: Trademark
Your trademarks are the pillar protecting your source. It’s the muscular monster defending your brand. It protects the name, logo, slogan, packaging, and more that tell the customer: “This quality comes from us.”
Think about the value locked up in a band name, like AC/DC, and their famous logo. Those trademarks convey decades of rock and roll and instantly tell you what to expect.
Your boutique name, your marketing company name, your food truck logo. Trademark law prevents copycats from using something confusingly similar to trick fans and consumers.
The biggest trademark mistake comes right at the beginning, and it’s not clearing your name before you start using it. If you don’t check, and I mean THOROUGHLY check to see if anyone else is using the same name or a similar one for the same thing you are, or something related to it, that’s like swimming in the Black Lagoon and having no idea there’s a creature lurking in there ready to take you down. Being rightfully accused of trademark infringement is a horror story you want to avoid.
Some trademark rights are instant, just like some copyright rights are, and just like those copyright rights, it’s a bad idea to rely only on those instant rights. The advice is the same: REGISTER!
Registration is the key to protecting your trademarks and the key to making money by selling or licensing the trademark.
Pillar 3: Patents
Now for the patent pillar. This is the pillar protecting your invention and innovation. The Frankenstein’s Monster of IP, if you will.
A patent gives you the right to exclude others from making, using, and selling your invention for a limited time, typically 20 years from filing. What counts as an invention may surprise you.
An invention can be all kinds of innovative things, like a non-obvious guitar effects pedal, a unique fake blood formula for special effects, an improved way of making candy, or the look of a new Halloween mask.
If you want patent rights, the scariest thing you can do is wait. Patents are generally a race to the filing line, and sometimes your application can be dead on arrival. If you publicly disclose your invention before filing your application, you can ruin your ability to get a patent.
If you do get a patent for your invention, you can sell the rights to someone else, like a larger company, more easily attract investors, or license the rights to someone else who wants to make, sell, or use the invention.
Pillar 4: Trade Secrets
Finally, we come to Trade Secrets. This is the pillar protecting your confidential knowledge, it’s the secrets locked away behind the hidden door.
Protection of your trade secrets, also sometimes known as proprietary information or confidential information, lasts only as long as you take reasonable steps to keep the information secret and the information retains commercial value because it’s secret.
This could be a proprietary horror makeup formula, a special effects technique, or your confidential vendor list. Anything that gives you a competitive edge. Sometimes it makes more business sense to protect these things this way than to get a patent that has a term limit and makes everything public.
Sloppy security sinks secrets, though. Once the secret gets out, like through you posting about it online or someone blabbing about it because you didn’t use NDAs, its value is gone like a vampire in a puff of smoke. The secret about trade secrets is that they can make you money BECAUSE they’re secret, and they can destroy your business if they escape from their cages.
Summary
Copyright, Trademark, Patent, Trade Secret. These are the pillars that keep your intellectual property working as tangible, valuable assets supporting your business. If you neglect them, they’ll crumble and may take your business down with them.
Don’t let your business become an undead zombie. Let’s make sure your assets are locked down.
Intellectual property is one of the most terrifyingly useful tools you have. If you’re a creator or other entrepreneur ready to build a frighteningly powerful brand and business, you need to know how to use it. You don’t have to face the darkness alone, though.
I help entrepreneurs across the U.S. make smart, legally sound decisions about their intellectual property. I’m an attorney in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, but I serve intellectual property clients nationwide.
If you’d like to consult with me, please book a consultation online at kingpatentlaw.com or by calling my office at 312-596-2222 or 217-714-8558.
Please check out the other posts and pages on my website for more information on intellectual property and business law issues. I’m also on most major podcast platforms as “Spellbinding IP: Patent, Trademark, and Business Strategy” (video on YouTube, Spotify, and Substack only) and on most social media as @kingpatentlaw.
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