Four basic steps will help your business obtain strong trademark and copyright protection.
- Identify – What do I have that is intellectual property? Review brand names, slogans, logos, websites, videos, podcasts, advertisements, written and graphic content, social media, and more.
- Notify – Provide proper trademark and copyright notices often and prominently.
- Register – Register the most important and valuable intellectual property assets.
- Contracts – Ensure that intellectual property rights are covered in contracts with employees, independent contractors, partners, manufacturers, distributors, etc.
While there are other elements to strong trademarks (monitoring and enforcement, for example), these four steps can be done by anyone to create a solid foundation for your intellectual property without too much investment. Identify, Notify, Register, and protect in Contracts. For a more detailed discussion of these issues, see my videos at www.erikpelton.tv
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