When you start a business it's so very exciting! The potential opportunities in the market are huge, exits for millions only a few years away, being on the front cover of a magazine for your amazing disruptive technology is forthcoming.
So you must register your intellectual property in all areas and countries. Forget the expense, we will be worth millions soon!
Or will you.
The advantage of being old is that you have experienced the ups and downs of reality. Some startups do are unicorns and grow massively and have huge exits. Most don't. They either fail or turn into regular businesses. Nothing wrong with the latter! The world needs quality regular businesses to help people do what they need to do.
One of the key questions in relations to IP protection is, when and how much do you spend on it?
My first business idea, just out from the Masters of Entrepreneurship degree from Swinburne University, was heavily protected. Unfortunately, we didn't even get a product to market so the time, money and effort were wasted.
The second idea was far more civilised and we actually launched the brand, Social Star, but the core digital platform that was the million-dollar idea didn't materialise. But the regular business did really well and has been fruitful and fulfilling since the start. So a good investment in the brand IP protection.
I have had many other ideas and businesses along the way which had various levels of protection and success. So I guess you could say that I have learned when to protect and when to wait until you know better!
That's why I wanted to run a workshop with my personal IP lawyer of the last 7 years, Mr Gareth Benson, who is such a great bloke he agreed to give his time to help my community learn more about IP. He does this day in, day out and has worked on all my recent ventures.
So if you are running a business and have some of these questions, come along:
Does registering my business name protect me from competitors?
If I have my social media and URLs can someone else get them too?
What does that TM and R symbol on logos really mean?
Can someone copy my business name in the same industry?
How can I object if someone is saying they are my business?
My idea is worth a billion dollars, how can I protect it!!
These are common issues in a startup and we will answer all of them.
Cheers Andrew
PS If you do sell your business for billions don't forget the little people!
