According to Bernard Klosowski, an Entrepreneur contributor, explains in Will the New Patent Law Kill the Garage Inventor and Startup that the new patent law is changing the game for new organizations. In the past, patents favored the entrepreneur who gave birth to their business in their homes, but all of that is changing now.
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The biggest risks of cloud storage (especially public cloud), is that it is not secure. Cloud services are easy pickings for hackers whether they are pranksters or outright criminals. CIOs and IS departments know this and even though they preach the importance of security, they still keep important information in public cloud storage. It seems that the increased agility and conveniences of cloud computing outweighs its shortcomings, including security.
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Trade secrets for a business can truly make or break their success if those secrets are not protected. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office points out that, by law, the U.S. is required to protect trade secrets that could pose a danger to the well-being of an important company. This is usually done through individual state laws that all differ. Regardless, compensation to a business is more than possible if a court finds out that a trade secret was misappropriated. In the latter case, that simply means someone leaking a trade secret and causing damage to the business in the process.
When you search for intellectual property in your business, you may find existing trademarks that belonged to a prior business you bought out. This can happen in acquisitions, and there may be a trademarked property you will want to recycle to help bring a sense of familiarity to past customers.
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A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is a relatively straightforward and effective device that will help in protecting your intellectual property (IP). This is a quick guide to creating and using NDAs appropriate for your individual business needs.
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What I learned about IP before I started at Traklight?
I googled it, I wiki’d it, I snooped around Traklight.com …I also found an MIT course on IP, it was a bit outdated, yet I was still in over my head! I learned IP can be seriously tricky business. It is so very important to protect your ideas and creations. When I got a chance to play around with the ID Your IP section of Traklight, I realized how important it is to have such a user-friendly tool for IP discovery!
Recently, Cody Foster & Co. came into the limelight due to their blatant design infringements of a number of independent artists’ works. Cody Foster sells wholesale holiday accessories and ornaments to big retail chains including Nordstroms, Fab, Anthropologie, and the like. They mass-produce holiday ornaments claiming to be inspired by “many sources but especially from offbeat vintage pieces and unconventional antiques.†Tell that to Lisa Congdon and Mimi Kirchner, just two of the many artists who have been ripped off. Cody Foster did not even take any effort to change the color or design of Lisa Congdon’s artwork while copying her work! It seems like the people at Cody Foster figured out that independent artists do not have $100,000 just lying around to sue them. Why even take the effort to appear like they created original work.
Continue reading “Social media helps independent artists fight back against infringement”
Trade secret protection is an important asset for small businesses, but it is also an aspect of intellectual property law of which most startup founders may not be familiar.
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Whiskey giant Jack Daniel’s filed a trademark infringement suit against Popcorn Sutton Distilling LLC, a small distiller of Popcorn Sutton Moonshine in Nashville, Tennessee, for allegedly copying Jack Daniel’s packaging style. As it appears, Jack Daniel’s contends that Popcorn Sutton intentionally designed its packaging such that it can ride on the popularity of the world-famous Jack Daniel’s whiskey brand.
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Emily is a California native, and a newbie to the state of Arizona. She and her husband, Tucker, most recently moved from beautiful Santa Cruz, CA, but before that, lived for two years in Santa Barbara, and for a year in Ventura – two amazingly gorgeous beach communities.
Continue reading “Meet Emily, Traklight Online Media Specialist…”