The Women Entrepreneurs Blog @ Simon

When should you protect your intellectual property? Now and forever.

Your intellectual property – that is, intangibles like your business name and product brands (trademarks), marketing brochures, web content, and advertising campaigns (copyright), novel inventions and business processes (patents), and business secrets, such as unique software code, research and development, and customer lists (trade secrets) – often are the most valuable assets of your business. 

How you protect your intellectual property can dramatically impact both the valuation of your company and the level of success it can achieve.

  Not only do you want to ensure you have secured your rights in your intellectual property to the maximum extent possible, you also want to be sure your intellectual property isn’t infringing anyone else’s rights. 

What’s in a name?

Well, a whole lot, really. Having a unique and distinctive business name is one of the best ways to stand out in the marketplace. This especially rings true if you operate a business exclusively through the web where a memorable brand is essential not only to help distinguish your business from the millions of other businesses operating on the web, but also to ensure that first-time customers looking to return to your site can find your company easily.

In conceiving a business name many people gravitate toward generic terms that are literal representations of the product or service being offered (such as AUTO INSURANCE CORP. for automobile insurance services) or descriptive terms that describe a feature or characteristic of the product or service being offered (such as RAISIN BRAN for cereal). Despite the allure of built-in brand marketing, from both a business and legal perspective, these types of business names are what business owners should avoid.

Avoiding generic and descriptive business names may seem counterintuitive. Why wouldn’t you want a name that can sell itself when a prospective customer is searching the yellow pages or the web for your products or services? From a practical standpoint, generic and descriptive business names are troublesome because the common terms that comprise them likely are included in countless business names and promotional materials, thus preventing you from distinguishing your business in the marketplace. 

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." Shakespeare, HenryVI

Hopefully, our readers will find the quote in the title of this post strictly humorous, rather than a call to act.

I am a lawyer. There, I said it. Contrary to the evil persona depicted in the many cartoons and email anecdotes my father and friends have sent me over the years, I pride myself in being a kinder, gentler lawyer and I believe I am in the company of many.

To me, a good business attorney is one of the most important assets a business owner can have, and the sooner he or she retains a reputable business attorney for guidance through the creation and operation of a new business, the better off that business owner will be.

As an attorney who bills by the hour, I understand why someone creating a new business may be reluctant to hire a lawyer initially. It is difficult enough to find the means to fund a new business and often times there just isn’t enough extra cash sitting around to pay a lawyer for legal assistance.

I am confronted with this issue regularly when I take calls from client prospects who ask me to help them differentiate between what is absolutely necessary and what can be overlooked in the beginning stages of operation. Unfortunately, for them – and for me – I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t predict with any certainty what crisis a particular client will face in the near or distant future.

However, experience has taught me that dealing with crises is an expected part of running a business. That knowledge is by no means intended to incite clients to act through fear; it is merely the practical reality of operating a business and ignorance is not bliss in the business world. It is far better to be aware today of potential problems rather than learn about them when they have become the crisis du jour.