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Sep 29 2016

Intellectual Property is Your Business and “A rose by any other name …”

 

ari-2

I remember my first exposure to Shakespeare in high school and the stress it caused when I realized that somehow I had to understand what looked like English, but which to me, might as well have been written in Klingon. I have witnessed the same stress in business owners when the topic and lingo of intellectual property comes up. The way to get through it, like anything else, is to start with what does make sense and go from there. So, with that in mind, let me recount to you the gist of two conversations I recently had with business owners about intellectual property and their business.

 

Do I really need to bother with intellectual property?

The short answer to that question is IP is always part of your business, so why wouldn’t you? Let’s also consider, however, the context for the question.

The question was prompted after a business owner received mixed messages from her board of advisors about the relevance of intellectual property (IP) to her business, an enterprise focused on educating young entrepreneurs. The different perspectives of her advisors ranged from “forget about IP” to “worry about it later”; focus instead on your “value proposition and managing risk”.

This thinking reveals some common misconceptions about what IP is and the role it plays in a business. The first was that IP can somehow be disassociated from managing risk and is extraneous to the brand, content, and expertise, at the core of her business. In fact, in this case, content is her product, and so the value proposition of her business is all about IP.  Selling her brand of content fundamentally relies on working with her copyrights and trademark rights. Whether or not she chooses to register these IP rights is another question, but even if she does not, she will still be using those rights in her transactions with publishers, distributors and customers.

Then there is the idea that you can put off addressing IP issues until you have some traction in the marketplace and some cash to spare. While addressing IP issues early on can indeed pull on meager start-up resources, suggesting you can cut IP out of the business incubation stage is like saying you can add yeast to bread to make it rise after you have baked it. In reality, you can make the most of the bread (and butter) of your business if you take the time to consider the legal nature of your creative assets from the get go. To do otherwise, is to risk not achieving the very thing you set out to do.

 

If I am dealing with intellectual property in my business, I don’t know it.

The business owner who raised this point works with a number of artisans and was thoughtfully reflecting on how business relationships seem to work fine without bringing intellectual property into the conversation. I get it. The more you talk about “legal stuff”, the harder it can be to get folks on board. The thing is, at the risk of being repetitive, IP is part of the equation even if not seen or acknowledged, and the math generally will not work in the long run if it is not somehow accounted for. So knowing this, would you rather address IP issues before or after they become a problem?

While the language of IP is not the most prosaic, understanding and talking about what something is, instead of around it, makes for clear, transparent and informed conversations, conducive to building solid business relationships. You can also save everyone the trouble of investing in relationships which are not a fit to begin with.

Whenever I have had this discussion with small business owners, I am reminded of my early days as a gardener, going to the nursery, buying plants and overlooking some of the details about how to care for them in different seasons. During the summer, flowers bloomed and there was new growth. In the fall and winter I would bypass a few steps to help the plants weather the colder days, and then when spring arrived, there was not much of a garden to speak of. Out of pocket and starting over, it was clear that there is no substitute for having a few targeted conversations and paying attention to the details.

And so it is with IP and your business relationships –  a more thorough understanding of your creative assets is always a plus and with this knowledge, the options for cultivating business plans and relationships become more numerous, adaptable, sustainable and reflective of the real value of your business.

 

Ariadni Athanassiadis is the lead attorney of Kyma Professional Corporation, which provides intellectual property (IP) legal services to help your business develop and benefit from the creative efforts and assets that make it distinctive. Whether it is your brand, product, services, designs, technology or business processes, Ariadni can help design IP legal solutions which let you make the most of what you give to your business.

———————————

Ariadni Athanassiadis

Kyma Professional Corporation

T: 613-327-7245

E: ariadni@kymalaw.com

W: www.kymalaw.com

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Written by Dwania Peele · Categorized: Ariadni Athanassiadis · Tagged: Ariadni Athanassiadis, brand, business, Intellectual Property, IP, Kyma Professional Corporation, legal, legal services, legal stuff, marketplace, product, Shakespeare, small business owner

Jun 07 2014

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – it’s not all garbage!

Sheralyn

I don’t like to reinvent the wheel.  It’s been done and frankly it seems to work rather well.  So when I hear a concept that intuitively makes sense, I like to think about its adaptability to the business environment and in particular, the small entrepreneur. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle seems a natural concept to reuse in the business world and here’s why.

As small business owners we don’t have the budget for multiple and varied advertising campaigns and we might only have one shot at getting website content that works.  We need to be as efficient as possible and what could be more efficient than recycling? If you’ve spent the time, energy and money investigating key word searches and search engine optimization tools to help you determine your website content, why wouldn’t you use those same words for all your business materials?  Start by maximizing the use of those words throughout your site. I advise my clients to use “the rule of 10.”  When considering your value or vision statement, that is, the words you use to you advertise your business, attract new customers and describe the service you offer, make it 10 words or less.  Reduce the amount of words then reuse them throughout the site.  Too much repetition will annoy Google so inserting key words every second word in a sentence isn’t the goal but rather, to aim for a creative sprinkling of those words on each of the pages within your site.  Only reuse the good ones!

Now to “reduce.”  Since we are talking about garbage, let’s be frank…many websites contain a whole lot of garbage.  Reduce it!  Have a good, hard look at the words on every single page of your site. Do they all need to be there?  Do they make sense? Has information changed since you first created your web presence?  It might be time for a revamp. I’ve mentioned this before but it bears repeating (see, I’m reusing) have some one else take a look at your site, a friend or a business associate who is willing to give you good, sometimes hard, honest feedback.  A Mother-in-law is great for this. “Garbage in is garbage out” as the saying goes so make sure your chosen critic won’t be filling your head with what you want to hear but rather, what you need to hear.  Then reduce, reduce, reduce.  More often than not what started as a 500 word essay on why your product is better than anyone else’s can be succinctly described in 100 words or less – but they are the best 100 words you’ve ever written!

Recycling in terms of this article simply means, once you’ve created your vision, logo and key value statements – recycle them over and over on ALL of your advertising materials.  Choose words that make sense on a business card, fit within an advertorial or brochure format and that still work on your website too.  Another term for this of course, is BRANDING.  By recycling key words on all your business paraphernalia you’re establishing your brand while not reinventing the wheel! Too often I see people who have a business card with one slogan, brochures that say something different and a website that looks nothing like the first two.  It’s like they couldn’t decide which version worked best so they just use all three and consistency be darned!  Consistency though, is critical. Avoid confusion by being clear and concise so that continuity of your message is what the reader remembers.  Shakespeare wrote an entire play around the words “To be or not to be?” but if you really think about it – as Hamlet contemplated his very existence on this earth – doesn’t that question truly sum it all up? Hamlet: reduced, reused and recycled.  You should do it too!

 

As Owner and Principal partner of “Writing Right For You” Sheralyn is a Communications Strategist – working together with entrepreneurs to maximize profit through effective use of the written word. Looking for web content that works, blog articles that engage or communications strategies that help you get noticed?  Contact Sheralyn today. Sheralyn is also the mother of two children now entering the “terrible and terrific teens” and spends her free time volunteering for several non-profit organizations.

Sheralyn Roman B.A., B.Ed.

Writing Right For You

Communications Strategies that help you GET TO THE POINT!

416-420-9415 Cell/Business

writingrightforyou@gmail.com

LinkedIn / Facebook / www.writingrightforyou.weebly.com

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Written by Dwania Peele · Categorized: Sheralyn Roman · Tagged: 10 words or less, advertising campaigns, branding, business card, business development, Canadian Small Business Women, efficient, entrepreneur, Garbage, garbage-in, garbage-out, Hamlet, logo, paraphernalia, recycle, Reduce, reinvent the wheel, Reuse, rule of 10, Shakespeare, Sheralyn Roman, small business, small business development, To be or not to be?, value statement, vision, website content, Writing Right For You

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