| We hear a lot about intellectual property (IP) protection while starting and growing a business. Lots of people say they “need to protect their IP”, but not so many are clear about how and why.
We talk a lot about trademarks, protecting your branding – your name, your logo, maybe a slogan. But there is another form of IP protection you benefit from and you don’t even need to file an application to benefit. Copyright exists as soon as you create something. Whether you create a digital download, a course, an e-book, a social media post… This is all you / your business’s copyright. So what do we know about your business? It’s your job to protect it. Well, what does that mean in the world of copyright, if we can’t register it anywhere? How do we stop people stealing our creative ideas and passing them off as their own? With copyright, it’s all about legal wording. Having appropriate disclaimers on the material you put out there, telling everyone this is your work (and they can’t have it) and, importantly, using the © It also means ensuring you’re signing up to contracts you understand and that don’t transfer your copyright to another. A horror story for you… I had a client a few years ago who signed a contract where all of his copyright was transferred to the client. He’d been running the business for 10 years, and accidentally signed his copyright away to his client. What did that mean for him? He could no longer sell the services which made him money and he had to close down his business. Scary, but true, and it’s happening every day. Then we have the option of sending cease and desist letters to people who do breach your copyright… But that’s probably another story for another day 😝 If you’ve got to the stage where it’s about time you understood what you needed to protect, and the best way to do that is Book yourself onto one of our FREE legal advice calls with a member of the team. We’ll discuss your options and how best to go about protecting your very valuable IP. Here is the link to our FREE legal advice calls – https://calendly.com/jamiesonlaw |
