You can't "trademark your copyright," but you can protect your brands and innovations with intellectual property rights.
St. Louis based Principals Bryan Wheelock and Joe Walsh recently spoke with Doug Farren at the National Center for the Middle Market, and host of The Market That Moves America podcast, to share insights into patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets for middle market companies. They discuss the significance of protecting distinct creations, from inventions to brands to original works of authorship, in the competitive middle market landscape throughout the world.
Intellectual property is more important today than ever before and often middle market companies need the most help. The challenge is how to prevent others from stealing your market share in markets in which you hope to compete.
In this episode, Walsh and Wheelock delve into one type of protection and discuss how to get the "biggest bang for your buck" through copyright: the form of protection provided to authors of "original works of authorship." This can include your business website, product instructional or promotional materials, and audio or video clips to name a few. Walsh states, "it's the great equalizer," and further discusses if it's important to driving sales of your products; protect the copyright.
Wheelock offers some closing advice and suggests setting up an environment in your business to identify what is protectable, evaluate the worth of intellectual property protection, and create a process to obtain protection.
To learn more about why intellectual property is a powerful tool for creating increased market share and gaining a competitive edge in today's middle market environment, listen to the full podcast here: https://bit.ly/3Gc3r10
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
