What All Business Owners Should Know About IP

You are nearing the end of your checklist and you quickly skim it one last time before finally deciding to launch your business. Business idea, check. Business plan, check. Finances, check. You're good to go right? No!

Most business owners have no idea how valuable it is to add intellectual property protection to their checklist. They are unaware of their most precious assets and how to protect them. Most business owners have no idea what intellectual property is and the importance of safeguarding it from others.

Imagine having this grand idea to open a bakery. You have been planning this since you were eleven years old in Ms. Penny's baking class and you are now in your mid-thirties and have finally decided to take your entrepreneurial mindset and put your plan into motion! You read every blog you can get your hand on and watch 127 YouTube videos on how to start a business. You finally have everything in order and your bakery is officially opened. "Penni Prowd Bakery." Ten years go by and you have grown your business beyond your wildest dreams. Your business has been featured in several magazines and articles and your customer base is growing by the day.

Along comes "Penii Prowed Eatery", a new neighborhood restaurant. They expand their business and begin selling cakes and pies containing their business logo "Penii Prowed Cakes." They register this name as a trademark and begin selling their cakes and pies all over the world. Customers begin to associate this new business with your business and complain about the confusion between the two businesses. Now this new business is expanding, and your business is losing its customer base.

This is one example of the importance of protecting your intellectual property. If you had registered your business name as a trademark, this may have prevented your competitor from using a name similar to yours and profiting off of it. Don't make this mistake by failing to include intellectual property protection in your business plan.

Trademarks are words, phrases, symbols, or designs that identify and distinguish the source of the goods or services of one business from others. Although federal trademark registration is not required, owning a federal trademark registration provides a number of advantages. Although this situation may be resolved with the help of an intellectual property attorney, this may have been avoidable if you had applied and received a trademark for "Penni Prowd Bakery." Don't wait until it's too late. Many entrepreneurs solely focus on building their business and fail to take crucial steps to secure their intellectual property.

For a brief overview of intellectual property law, take a look at the previous blog entitled "What Is Intellectual Property?" Please share this blog with other small business owners and entrepreneurs and look out for the next blog for more content on intellectual property!

Enisha S. Smith

#IPLaw #IntellectualProperty #LegalProtection