Author Archives: Jean Niehues

Small businesses face a number of challenges as they try to grow. Being a small company means have to approach things differently than larger companies in your field. And while a lack of assets can be a hindrance, it can also offer flexibility. Bigger businesses may have the money and workforce, but they can alsoContinue reading “Have Success With Your Business in 2018”

The new year is an opportunity for a fresh start, both personally and professionally. The turning over of the calendar is as good an opportunity as any to try and ditch poor habits and implement positive ones. For many of us, that means trying to get organized. With as much as life throws at us,Continue reading “Get Organized in the New Year”

The holiday season offers a chance for reflection and thought, not only on months and years past, but our current positions and where we see ourselves in the near future. For business owners, the process of assessing the past, present and future is necessary for planning your next steps. But mistakes made in the pastContinue reading “Avoid Haunting IP Mistakes”

Each year, companies lose billions of dollars to intellectual property (IP) theft. Particularly, small businesses that are still in their early stage seem to be the most vulnerable. This is because small business owners are widely known for their reluctance to allocate part of their annual budget to the protection of their ideas. But protecting your IP doesn’t haveContinue reading “Keep Your Intellectual Property Safe”

The business of freelance work can be fraught with complications not otherwise experienced with employees, especially when intellectual property is involved. Contracts have to be specific about ownership of the work created once it is transferred from the creator to the contracting party. And use beyond what was originally agreed can complicate matters, as aContinue reading “Freelance Writers Win Copyright Suit Against Publishers”

We devote a lot of writing in this space to the issues and concerns of small businesses and startups, but there is an entire subset of professionals that are part of the business ecosystem that is often forgotten, and that is the independent artists and creators that can produce the work that are often neededContinue reading “Using Creative Works to Grow Your Business”

Television can be fertile ground for copyright lawsuits, given the amount of creative work that goes into producing a single episode of original programming, to say nothing of the hundreds of scripted programs that now exist across the largest number of channels and streaming platforms that have ever existed in the history of the medium.Continue reading “Copyright Lawsuit Against HBO Dismissed”

We may look at the romance novels we see at supermarkets or airport shops as something of a joke, with overwrought titles and lascivious covers. But romance novels are a big business; according to the Romance Writers of America website, romance novels account for over $1 billion in sales and make up 34% of theContinue reading “Romance Novelist Turns Trademark Troll”

You can read part one here.

Technology has given us more access to available information and an incredible ability to disseminate our own messages. The internet allows us to see stories and pictures and videos from all over the world from the comfort of our devices, and the phone in our pocket can capture our experiences with high quality pictures andContinue reading “Intellectual Property and the Challenges of Technology, Part One”