There are so many advantages to owning your own business, from the flexibility of making your own schedule to making your own money and deciding what to do with the resulting profits—to the excitement of creating a business model, making products, hiring a team, and managing it all your way. The challenges can be enormous, but in the end so are the rewards. Because of this, asset protection is crucial, and this may include some ‘intangibles’ too, such as intellectual property.
If you are lucky, you may have the potential of earning an unlimited income—and depending on your business acumen you may accumulate many impressive assets in a short amount of time. Among those assets likely are at least one or two ‘pieces’ of intellectual property. For most business owners, this starts with the copyright which may be applied for to protect what are termed “expressions of art,” but may be architectural structures, software, or more. Patents may be applied for to protect complex designs and new products.
Trademarks are critical too for so many businesses as they may encompass logos, symbols to appear on letterhead and nearly everything attributed to your company, as well as service marks (a subset of trademarks) which indicate the service that you provide to the public. This type of intellectual property is usually created at the beginning as part of your company’s foundation and may be with you for the lifetime of your business.
For some, branding mechanisms maybe very simple, and you may not realize the value or the need for protection of these types of intellectual property. You are the rightful owner of your intellectual property upon its inception; however, you could be left out in the cold if a legal dispute were to erupt over its use. Imagine though if someone were to steal your logo or idea! Without the proper registration, and the help of a skilled intellectual property attorney, you could be out of luck when it comes to pursuing legal action. And when you are considering whether you even need trademarks or logos or ‘branding,’ think about how some of the most basic symbols stand behind worldwide leading companies such as Nike or McDonald’s.
The Bolender Law Firm can assist you in all intellectual property matters. Call us at 310-320-0725 now or submit an easy consultation request online. We are here to help!