Protecting your concepts and ideas is regularly neglected by people, despite it being an essential part of nearly every single industry in the world. When you create an original work, you want to make sure that you are acknowledged as its author or creator. Don’t let your ideas slip away from you. A little caution and effort can save you from that dreadful saying: “if only I…”
Here is a practical guide to keeping your ideas, yours.
I had a crazy thing happen to me that I want to share because it is an important lesson to anyone who works hard to create great content for their blog or website.
Someone who reads my blog posts on FreelanceSwitch contacted me today about something she thought was fishy. She had seen a blog post about making the switch from full-time work to freelance that looked suspiciously familiar to one I had written for FreelanceSwitch a couple of weeks ago.
When I saw the blog post I was appalled. It wasn’t similar—it was EXACTLY the same! The only difference between in the content are the links inserted into the copy. Even the same stock photo that was purchased for the post appeared in this new blog.
New ideas make the world of business go 'round, and small businesses are no exception. Such ideas can be the lifeblood for these businesses, which are often built around a new invention, product, process, service or idea.
But small-business owners often aren't sure what to do when they have a new idea. Should you get a patent? How can you protect your business interests? What's a trademark, anyway? And is copyright even something that concerns you?
To address those questions and others, here's a primer of the three intellectual property biggies: patents, trademarks and copyrights.
How important is intellectual property protection to your startup? Not too long ago, defensible IP was one of the top things venture capitalists wanted to see in a startup. But the success of several high-profile tech startups, such as Twitter and Facebook, that are relatively weak on patentable intellectual property, has caused many to rethink that assumption. After all, creating and maintaining a robust IP portfolio is expensive. Patents don’t determine whether a startup will be able to scale. And the lean startup model is all about getting to market fast with the minimum viable product. Launch first, patent later… if at all.
