STOP Fakes: Why You Need to Protect Your Intellectual Property

Financial Foreplay® Podcast

Whether you are an investor, start-up, branded business, selling branded products or promoting your own brand, it is imperative that you take the necessary steps to safeguard your intellectual property.
Intellectual property covers and protects more than just an idea or a concept – it shields genuine business assets that may be integral to your business and its long-term success.

Intellectual property can consist of many different things – patents, trademarks, copyright, or registered designs. These things tend to differentiate your business from competitors which is why you stand to suffer significant losses if those things are used without your permission.

Any company (not matter the size) is at risk of having their ideas, products or services, processes, or brands infringed upon. This can happen by someone down the street or by a party on the other side of the world, making protection more important than ever to the survival of your business.

Bio:

Brian Goldberg is a qualified Trade Mark Attorney who protects brands, logos and slogans in Australia and all international markets.

Financial Foreplay® Highlights:

1. Intellectual property encompassed copyright, trademark, patents, and designs- where copyright is created automatically, the other three rights must be registered in order to gain protection

2. Exposure to theft is now a global issue – it is imperative to set up the right foundation from the start

3. How to guide:

a. Is your brand available and trademarkable?

b. Online tools make it much easier now to check locally and overseas

c. When dealing with third parties (i.e. contractors) the default is that ownership will attribute to the person who made it so you need to have proper contracts in place if you intend to assert ownership

d. With products and processes – is it patentable (i.e novel and inventive)?

e. Digital components and selling abroad – trademark is imperative

4. Cost of getting it wrong include cost of rebranding, loss of intangible value or goodwill that you have built in something you can no longer use + costs of legal defence to action by the registered owner

5. It is imperative to nip infringements in the bud early – get out a notification and cease and desist letter, 70% of these matters are settled well before going to court

a. Inexperienced and naive parties are much more likely to refuse settlement (especially if they have gotten bad legal advice or they are just beligerant)

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