Intellectual Property, Business, and Estate Planning
Protecting your ideas, business, and legacy
Your trademark renewal deadline passed six months ago. Your contractor owns the logo you paid for. Your patent is about to lapse because you forgot about the maintenance fee. Someone just registered your business name as a trademark in another state. Your trade secrets have zero legal protection.
And you have no idea.
Until you try to enforce your rights and discover you don’t have any. Or you get a cease-and-desist letter for using your own logo. Or your trademark registration gets canceled. Or a key employee walks out with your client list, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
That’s when you discover that “I didn’t know I needed to do that” won’t help you.
Most of these IP disasters are completely preventable if you catch them early.
That’s why I created the Beginning-of-Year Intellectual Property Checkup Checklist.
It’s a comprehensive audit you can do yourself in a few hours (or work through over a weekend). No law degree required. Just follow the sections, answer the questions, and identify any problems before they become expensive legal horrors.
Not sure where to start? This matrix helps you prioritize what to protect first based on value and vulnerability.
Never miss a critical deadline again. This section shows you how to set up a system that works.
When you download this checklist, you’ll receive:
Scenario 1: Unregistered Trademark Limits Your Reach
You never got a federal trademark registration for your business name. A competitor in another state registers the same name and is using it nationwide. You now have to prove you used it first nationwide and have market recognition nationwide, which is difficult. Otherwise, you may be forced to rebrand if you want to use it outside your limited market.
Cost: $50,000-150,000+ in rebranding, plus permanently limited market reach.
Scenario 2: No IP Assignment from Contractor
You paid a designer $5,000 to create your logo. You never got a written IP assignment. The designer now claims they own it and wants licensing fees.
Cost: $10,000-30,000 in legal fees to try to resolve it, possible settlement payment, possible need for new logo.
Scenario 3: Missed Patent Maintenance Fee
Your patent maintenance fee was due at the 3.5-year mark. You missed it. Then you missed the grace period. The patent permanently lapses. Your competitor starts selling your invention.
Cost: Loss of 16.5 years of patent protection. Potentially millions in lost competitive advantage.
Scenario 4: No Trade Secret Protection
Your top salesperson leaves and takes your entire client list to a competitor. You have no NDA. No written trade secret policy. No proof you took “reasonable steps” to protect it. You have no real remedy.
Cost: $100,000-500,000+ in lost clients and revenue.
This free checklist can prevent all of this.
This isn’t theory. This isn’t “5 Reasons IP Matters for Startups” or “Top 10 Business Assets to Protect.”
This is a practical, step-by-step audit created by an experienced patent and trademark attorney who has seen too many ways businesses accidentally lose or limit their IP rights.
I’ve helped clients recover from disasters that cost them tens of thousands of dollars because they didn’t know what needed to be done until it was too late.
This checklist exists so you don’t become one of those stories.
Free. No Catch. Just Useful.
I’m offering this checklist for free because I believe in educated business owners. The more you understand about IP protection, the less likely you are to accidentally lose it.
You’ll get the checklist immediately. No waiting for approval. No “check your email in 24 hours.” Just instant access to a PDF you can download, print, and use right away.
Yes, you’ll be added to my email list. I send occasional emails with useful business and IP information. No spam. No daily nonsense. Just practical advice when I have something worth saying. You can unsubscribe anytime. I’ll never give your name or email address to a third party other than what my website needs to get the checklist to you. I hate it when people sell or pass on my name or email address without my permission, so I’ll never do that to you.
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