The Intellectual Property (“IP”) advice that small business owners are prepared to pay me for is very specific and it reduces a vast and complex subject to the following four manageable areas:

Client lists: A traditional example of IP law is when an employee leaves to join the competition and takes the client list with them.  This can end up in court in two days (or less) as the angry business owner needs to act quickly and in the heat of the moment money is no object.

Original Names: Business owners are more ready to fight over brand names that they have created.  If they have not protected their trade names by registering trademarks and domain names they are ready to fight .  For instance, someone else using an internet domain name similar to their business or product name. In fact, many small business partnerships dissolve in unhappiness due to lack of funds.  In the absence of money sometimes the only thing to fight about is the name.

Plagiarism and copying generally: This can range from your article being copied and used under someone else's name to you copying a graphic or other content from someone else's website and using it in your newsletter or on your website.  Business owners often want to know how much they can copy while at the same time wishing to protect their own creative efforts.  Reputations can be threatened and lost.  Most people would think this should be “P” for “Pirating : the outright copying and sale of your products under your brand name”.  However, this tends not to happen to small business owners.  They are more likely to have their ideas stolen by a larger enterprise.  Although, disputes do arise when competitors ship in products which are very similar.

Your shared content: Joint venturers, consultants and employees may want to claim ownership or joint ownership of any creative work in which they were involved e.g. logos, training materials, software, internet content.   Business owners ask, how ownership can be secured?

Small business owners need to know these things to keep out of trouble as IP disputes can be very expensive. So be warned.

© Paul Brennan 2010. All rights reserved.

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