For Women SANE Enough to Start Their Business
Not you. Other entrepreneurs/freelancers/contractors. Of course, you don’t hesitate to consult with an attorney about launching, running or growing your business. That’s just how you roll. But those other folks just don’t see the value in paying an attorney to talk about this stuff. To them, everybody knows how to decide what’s right from a [...]
Knowing when to hire help is critical for small business owners. It doesn’t make sense to be penny wise and pound foolish (um, is that how the saying goes? I hope so!) by trying to save money and do everything yourself. At some point, your business will suffer if you don’t get some help. You [...]
Let’s dispel a big misconception among small, home-based business owners such as freelancers and other “solopreneurs”. The misconception is that these “itty bitty” business owners don’t need to use contracts or concern themselves with the “legal” side of business. The reasons for this misconception are varied: My business is too small to bother with legal [...]
Ideas are a dime a dozen. New ones are generated every day, all day long. But, the person who takes the first step to protect that idea by filing a patent application is usually the one who gets to lay claim to the idea. Unlike a trademark or copyright, in patent law, the first to [...]
Protecting your company’s intellectual property is critical for small business owners. Now that we’ve talked about trademark and copyright protection, let’s discuss trade secrets. Trade secrets are often overlooked by small business owners when considering intellectual property assets. Trade secrets consist of information that your company does not want divulged because of the competitive advantage [...]
Last time we talked about trademarks. Now, let’s focus on copyrights. Copyright literally means the “right to copy”. Books, reports, songs, websites, lyrics, melodies, pictures, software, poetry and other original, creative expressions can all be copyrighted (protected) by filing an application for registration with the U.S. Copyright Office. However, these original works are protected whether [...]
What do your logo, your tagline, your website, your client list and the industry white paper you wrote all have in common? They are your company’s intellectual property and should be protected as if your business depends on it, because it very likely does. How? It depends. Let’s start with trademarks. If you want to [...]
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Traci: Thanks for commenting. You make some excellent po...
Sheryl: I reviewed my plan at the end of 2010 and made adj...
Traci: Tessa, thanks so much for your comments. I apprec...
Tessa Shepperson: Hi Traci,I'm a lawyer from England UK, I was told...
Traci: I don't know why women seem to have particular di...