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 brought light to the world of trade secrets, and just what companies could potentially lose, if their secrets were to be shared with the competition.

Continue reading “Intellectual Property Theft and Three Trade Secret Cases”

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 using them on Twitter or Facebook.

Continue reading “Protecting Your Intellectual Property with Trademarks on Hashtags”

The world is moving faster than ever and it has become increasingly difficult to keep business secrets, regardless of the continued importance of keeping major pieces of your intellectual property (IP), like trade secrets, secret. So how do you accomplish this?

Continue reading “Intellectual Property Protection Strategies: Protect Trade Secrets”

This is a guest blog by Ian Monat, Owner of Monat Technologies. When the catalytic converter was stolen off his truck he made it his mission to “protect vehicles across the U.S. and U.K. from catalytic converter theft with the best security solutions on the market”: The Catlock.

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Continue reading “The Importance of Protecting your IP: A Tale of Two Kitties”

Dear Arizona,

I have lived in your state now for about 10 months. Before that, I would have scratched my head at industry buzzwords like entrepreneurial spirit, evangelist, gamification, accelerator, scalability, thought leaders, etc. Having been working in the startup world for less than a year, I am still fresh to the ways and thinking of my colleagues and other startups. So it was no shock that after attending SeedSpot’s 3^rd Demo Day last night, the positively contagious “entrepreneurial spirit” intrigued me.

It got me to thinking how each of the presenters on the program came to be standing behind that curtain tonight. What qualities do these successful entrepreneurs have that others who have failed, have lacked. I believe I narrowed it down to three qualities:

Continue reading “How Successful Entrepreneurs Do It Differently”

Our Taking the Scary Out of Startup series is now in full swing and half over. Last week, we talked about some of our wonderful advisory board mentors; this week’s series will discuss why contracts matter.

If someone tells you that contracts are a waste of time and that only lawyers insist on contracts, walk away or run. Picture yourself sitting across from a potential investor or a large company who is interested in a strategic partnership – very exciting. Yet you feel very uncomfortable as they mention words like due diligence or concepts like assembling all your contracts in data room because you did not get paperwork done during the exciting startup phase.

Continue reading “Taking the Scary Out of Startup: Why Startups Succeed, Part 6”

The 1980 film Raging Bull is considered by many a classic, earning two Academy Awards as well as frequent placement on most lists of the greatest films ever made. But one fight viewers have never seen recently made its way to the highest court in the land, and the ruling could affect future copyright lawsuits.

Continue reading “Supreme Court Reinstates Copyright Lawsuit Over ‘Raging Bull’”

Disney is taking a more relaxed attitude toward intellectual property protection. One of the problems with modern internet technology, such as YouTube, is that it has granted people more power to engage in copyright infringement and intellectual property theft. Filmmakers, for instance, have often found themselves running ragged chasing down instances in which unauthorized clips from films have been used, even as part of a parody or a homage.

Continue reading “Disney’s Relaxed Attitude Concerning Intellectual Property Protection”

This is just a quick post to update our readers on some exciting Traklight news. Mary has been feverishly writing up a storm as she is now a regular contributor to Forbes.com.

That’s right – we’re on the national scene! It has been an exciting transition and definitely something we recommend our readers stay up to date with. The content that Mary shares on Forbes will be a fantastic resource for startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses alike.

If you missed her blogs, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered:

Continue reading “Traklight Shares Intellectual Property Content on Forbes.com”

With the majority of business transactions and information being conducted and transmitted online, security issues for intellectual property (IP) will continue to be a major problem here in the United States. But intellectual property theft isn’t always conducted online. It may sound like “Hollywood spy-stuff,” but there’s the potential for IP snoops who might work outside the Internet to try to get your trade secrets through face-to-face contact. Take a look at some methods where this could happen.

Continue reading “3 Ways to Become an Intellectual Property Theft Victim”