In this unprecedented time of creation and innovation, Black business owners must be as involved and engaged as ever before. Forming your business properly, making sure your tax situation is good, and making sure all your domain names are secured are all important things. None of this matters if you don't have your intellectual property situation properly understood. Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents, and Trade Secret are the 4 IP categories we'll explore.
Let's start with something most business owners will need. When you form your business, you'll have a business name. This name that's on your website, socials, products, and associated with your services needs to be trademarked. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), "a trademark typically protects brand names and logos used on goods and services." Any name, logo, mark, or slogan that your business uses, get it trademarked.
If you create anything original that qualifies in any of the above categories, get a copyright. The U.S. Copyright Office goes into more detail about some of the finer points but those are the basics. For all the creatives reading, this is important because a lot of creatives are so consumed by creating, that they miss the part where they are still part of a business. Not everyone values your creation like you do or respects you enough to ask politely. If things aren't properly protected, there is a risk they will simply be taken.
"A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides, in general, a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem." - World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Inventors need love too. We don't talk about them enough. They are just as much creative as everyone else. Patents are specifically for them. If you're an inventor, patent whatever you created, and trademark the name of the thing you created. If money is an issue, then the priority to some people in this situation is the patent because that protects the actual method or machine that's been created.
Some people create things that they don't want anyone to know the details of. For the sake of patents, you must detail to the USPTO everything about the thing you're attempting to protect. For a trademark and copyright, you have to share with them the things you're looking to protect. Once you do, all the information about these becomes public. This is fair since the public needs to know what is protected so they don't infringe and get caught up in lawsuits. So what do you do if you don't want the public to know? You get a trade secret.
WIPO summarizes the 4 things needed to qualify for a trade secret.
commercially valuable because it is secret,
be known only to a limited group of persons, and
be subject to reasonable steps taken by the rightful holder of the information to keep it secret, including the use of confidentiality agreements for business partners and employees.
Some famous trade secrets examples are the formula for Coca-Cola, the formula for how the New York Times compiles its best-seller list, and Google's algorithm.
Hopefully, this helps a little on the intellectual property end. If you're a business owner and you don't think any of this applies to you, think again. Intellectual property is the unsung hero of the business world and an easy way to either find yourself on the side of losing a lot of money or making a lot of money.