Startups and business owners are often caught up in the day-to-day running of the business. From the perspective of new business owners, especially business owners in the areas of training, public speaking, and coaching, landing the next deal, creating new programs, and paying the bills seems to always be a central theme.

If you are a new business owner, or if you are new to the public speaking, training and coaching industry, this article is especially written for you. It is vital to take a moment to consider how important IP, despite other priorities you may have at this time, to the protection of your IP could potentially make or break your business. You can do this by registering trademarks for your brands, logos and code names; copyrights to your training materials, syllabi, and books; or creating a patent for any invention, device or prototype you have.

Let me convince you why you should be involved in protecting intellectual property, especially at the start of your business.

Reason n. # 1: protecting your intellectual property helps you avoid future costs and problems

By protecting your rights to the content and materials you have created, you essentially minimize any opportunities that others (especially your competitors) may claim about your intellectual treasures in the future. For example, if you have registered your logo as a trademark, and in the future, when your business is booming, your future competitors will know that they will be at a legal disadvantage if they directly copy your trademarks. This thus creates a barrier to prevent them from doing so. And in the event that they still decide to copy your trademarks, the legal directive is in your favor.

Reason n. # 2: you can monetize your intellectual property

By creating a treasure trove of copyrighted materials, with a respectable brand protected by trademarks, you can monetize these intangible assets by selling the business in the future or by raising capital from investors from business expansion.

Reason n. # 3: it can solidify your brand

Lastly, your trademarks and copyrighted materials represent the competitive advantage that your company has over its competitors. By protecting them, you reduce the chances that others can claim the intellectual assets that are actually yours. Therefore, your competitors will have to innovate and work harder to produce something better if they ever want to diminish the market power of their intellectual properties.

Conclution

These are the big three reasons why you should consider protecting your intellectual property, even if you are just a new business owner. The long-term benefits of doing so are plentiful, and you may well be building the next multi-billion dollar IP business.

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