Protecting Your Assets and the Power of the Law: Your Brand
In light of Valentine’s Day, I wanted to begin this series by discussing the heart of your business:
Your Brand.
Your Brand is the life force of your business. It is the means of identification to which your service and/or product is associated and it is how your business is differentiated from its competitors. All of the advertising, business development, and marketing effort and money that you dispense throughout the life of your business is all to establish, develop and/or maintain your Brand. Most importantly, once a Brand is established it is the central asset of your business because all revenue is derived from the quality and desirability associated with your Brand. Why do we automatically reach for Pepsi rather than the less expensive generic cola? Because we associate quality and consistency with the Pepsi brand. We know that any can of Pepsi will taste the same and if we are lucky Beyoncé will magically appear to endorse our selection!
Because your Brand is the heart of your business, it is imperative that you are educated on the many ways in which you can protect it. Your Brand is composed of your business’ intellectual property. The law protects intellectual property through copyright, trademark, and patent rights. Copyrights and trademarks are not only protected through state and federal registration, they are also provided some common law protection that attaches upon use. The intellectual property of your business can also be protected through the use of agreements like non-disclosure agreements and confidential business information known as trade secrets.
Copyright protection covers original works of authorship fixed in tangible media of expression. Examples of copyrights are transcripts of books or movies, movies or videos, written content or images on a website, artwork and music, etc. Trademarks protect words, names, symbols, and devices that are used to identify and/or distinguish goods or services from another. Examples of well known trademarks are the McDonald’s name and logo and/or the Pepsi name and logo. Finally, Patents are a statutory privilege that provides the patent owner with the right to exclude others from make, using or selling a novel, non-obvious and useful invention. An example of a patented product would be the iPhone.
There is a lot more that can be discussed regarding each one of these avenues of protecting the intellectual property of your business but that should be discussed in detail with a business attorney. The determination of what protection is best for your business and for your Brand is very individualized. However, this list of the different ways in which the law can protect your business’ intellectual property demonstrates that there are variety of options available to business owners.
It would be a waste of time and money to building up your Brand, the life force of your business, only to leave it vulnerable to being legally stolen because you have not invested adequate time and money into protecting your Brand. As such, it is never “too soon” to look into and research the best ways to use the law to protect your business and your Brand. A business attorney who practices intellectual property is a great resource of information regarding the protection of your Brand and an attorney can navigate you through the various factors that need to be considered when deciding which form of protection is best for your business. So, this February make it a goal to use the law to protect your business’ heart: Your Brand.