Protecting Your Intellectual Property with Trademarks on Hashtags

You don’t often hear about branded hashtags and trademarks going together. But as the hashtag grows more in prominence in pop culture, it seems it’s become a form of intellectual property (IP). Forbes recently pointed out how companies are using them everywhere for branding purposes, including placing hashtags on products as much as they do usingContinue reading “Protecting Your Intellectual Property with Trademarks on Hashtags”

Intellectual Property Theft and Three Trade Secret Cases

Each year around 300 trade secret cases are heard in state level courts. Additionally, about 25 cases are tried in federal court as a criminal offense. This just goes to show that intellectual property theft is a very real real issue. With that being said, the following three cases have garnered media attention and broughtContinue reading “Intellectual Property Theft and Three Trade Secret Cases”

Taking the Scary Out of Startup: Why Startups Succeed, Part 5

Last week’s Taking the Scary Out of Startup series discussed culture as a touchstone. Not only do we have wonderful Trakers who support our culture, but we would not be where we are today without our advisors. And just like identifying your intellectual property (IP) and creating your IP strategy, you can never start tooContinue reading “Taking the Scary Out of Startup: Why Startups Succeed, Part 5”

Astronaut Space Music Video Caught in Copyright Law

Tech Digest reported a couple weeks ago on how an iconic video created by Commander Chris Hatfield, a Canadian astronaut who recently flew on the International Space Station (ISS), will have to be taken down due to copyright law. Hatfield had created a music video of himself singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” while floating in the ISSContinue reading “Astronaut Space Music Video Caught in Copyright Law”

Intellectual Property Lessons Learned

This post, originally appearing February 10, 2014, on America’s SBDC Biz Blog spotlights some examples of entrepreneurs ignoring their intellectual property and the intellectual property lessons learned from those mistakes. We post this as a guide to our readers, whether you are an entrepreneur, startup, or small business owner as lessons to be understood byContinue reading “Intellectual Property Lessons Learned”

5 Reasons Every Business Should Have Trademarks

We can’t stress the importance of trademarks enough. If you are not familiar with trademarks, check out “What’s the Big Deal About Trademark Registration,” an article by guest blogger Shane Olafson of Lewis Roca Rothgerber. Taking the time to federally register your intellectual property (IP) is a necessity for effective branding and can help eliminateContinue reading “5 Reasons Every Business Should Have Trademarks”