In this episode, recorded as a LinkedIn Live, Erin explores the importance of copyrights and trademarks.  Each plays a distinct role in an expertise-based business, but they are valued equally by your corporate clients. This episode helps you understand your IP from the perspective of your corporate clients so you can prioritize your resources to maximize value.

Topics covered include:

• The key differences between copyrights and trademarks
• The purpose that copyrights and trademarks play in your business
• Which types of IP provide the most value to your corporate clients
• Three key steps to make sure you are protecting your most valuable assets

Join us next time on the Hourly to Exit podcast for more insights into transforming your expertise-based business.

Connect with Erin to learn how to use intellectual property to increase your income and impact. hourlytoexit.com/podcast.

Erin's LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinaustin/

Think Beyond IP YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVztXnDYnZ83oIb-EGX9IGA/videos

Music credit: Yes She Can by Tiny Music

A Team Dklutr production

Hello, ladies.

Welcome to the Hourly

to Exit podcast.

Today is LinkedIn Live Day.

I do LinkedIn lives every

last Wednesday of the month

at 12 noon Eastern, where

I answer your questions

about transforming your

expertise based business.

From unscalable, hourly,

one to one that is

scalable and hopefully

you can sell someday.

since today is a LinkedIn

live, I do have some slides,

but this topic is one

that you can live without

the slides if, you, are

listening on the podcast.

But you can check

out the slides on the

YouTube channel as well.

So today we are talking

about something that came

up during, I was a guest,

expert in a mastermind.

And of course I was

talking about contracts

and copyrights.

And of course someone

said, yeah, but what

about trademarks?

So, that has inspired

this conversation today.

it is entitled your

Copyrights or Your Trademarks,

which one do your clients

actually care about?

And uh, if you know me at all,

you probably know the answer,

but I'm gonna tell you why.

So let's talk

about copyrights.

Just really briefly,

just make sure we're

all on the same page.

copyrights are intellectual

property protection that

protects the original creative

works of authorship that are

an expression of an idea.

And what's important here?

Well, all the words here

are important actually.

Original, creative, and

expression of an idea.

So it has to be original.

It can't be something that

you took from somebody else.

You don't get copy up

protection for that.

It has to be creative.

So the example is the list of.

Phone numbers as if the

old phone book example,

which probably no one

knows what a phone book is.

And, then the

expression of an idea.

The ideas themselves

are not protected, by

intellectual property law.

You have to put it into

some tangible form.

The expression of the idea is

considered a tangible form.

The examples here are books,

presentations, research

reports, market analysis,

training materials, SOPs.

And so once you create

something with your idea.

So you put pen to paper

figures to keyboard,

brush to canvas.

once you create something

that's original, then It

is eligible for copyright

protection, and the beauty

of copyrights is that it

provides a legal monopoly

over your original creation.

So the monopoly that

you have is only you.

Have the exclusive right

to make copies of the

material, to distribute it,

to perform it like in the

case of a song or a movie, to

create derivatives from it.

to use your original

painting to make postcards

or t-shirts, or to give,

rights to third parties.

So anyone who wants to use

your copyrighted material

has to come to you to

get a license to use it.

so that is copyrights.

Now what about trademarks?

a trademark is a word,

phrase or symbol, or could

be a combination of them.

Even sounds can be,

trademarked, that identify the

source of a good or service.

And of course the more

unique the mark, such

as something that's kind

of made up like Google.

The stronger the

protection will be.

So examples, Google, company

names, logos, like the

golden arches of McDonald's,

or a branded offering.

many of you who are, experts

may have, a framework

that you've developed

that you have a trademark

in just the name of the.

Framework versus

your company name.

So it can be anything that,

identifies the source of

the good or the service.

And the purpose of a

trademark is to prevent

confusion, by consumers.

So if I see the Barbie

trademark, I know that

this is a Mattel company

product, or if I see the,

big Mac, I know that that

is a McDonald's product.

So that tells me the

origin of that product.

And the same would

apply to services.

Those are called service

marks, but it comes all under

the heading of trademarks.

So, When I am thinking

about which one.

Does the client

really care about?

So this is the one slide

that you might wanna check

out, which is copyrights

and trademarks side by side.

And so on the left I have,

copyrights reminder that

copyrights give you a legal

monopoly in your original

creation versus a trademark,

which is intended to prevent

confusion of the consumer.

So no confusion in

the marketplace.

what do your

clients care about?

Your clients care about the

value that you create for them

or that you provide to them.

They care about the

return on the investment.

They care about the results.

They care about the

transformation that they

get from working with you.

And so in kind of just.

Generalized terms, the

copyrights are client focused.

Copyrighted materials are

the workshops that you

deliver, the courses that

you create, the, trainings

that you deliver, the

books that you write.

Those are all copyrighted

materials, and those are all

the ways that you, deliver

value to your clients.

Versus trademarks, and I

generally refer to these as

being you focused because

they aren't about the value

that your client gets.

They're about protecting

you and your materials

from a third party

claiming to be you.

So let's say that you have

developed your workshops and

everyone loves your workshops.

They create this

amazing transformation.

your name is all

over the place.

Is this the person you

need to talk to to get

this type of, let's just

call 'em HR workshops.

And then once you have

developed these amazing

transformations for your

clients, then the trademark

becomes important to make sure

that some other consultant

doesn't pretend to be you.

And, say that I can deliver

that transformation to by

using a similar name, I

we're not even gonna go with

someone just stealing your

stuff, cuz there's always

gonna be someone who's

gonna steal your stuff.

But for someone who can

confuse the market by saying,

I have, Aaron's HR protocol

and let's just say you can get

that trademarked, excuse me.

And so someone couldn't come

along and have, Ellen's HR

protocol, which would be very

confusing to the marketplace.

They know it's something like

that begins with an e they

know the number of syllables

and all that good stuff,

and so they would think that

Ellen's HR protocol was.

The same as Aaron's

HR protocol.

So it's not that trademarks

aren't important, it's just

that they aren't what provides

value to your clients.

It's the transformation and

the results that provide

value to your clients,

and those come via your

copyrighted materials.

So since we know that

copyrights are the primary

value, and I say primary in

the context of an expertise

based business that serves

corporate clients, if you are,

franchising your methodology,

obviously the trademarks very

important, in order to get,

everyone knows that solution

comes from your materials,

out in the marketplace.

But when we're talking

about providing value to

our corporate clients, it

is our copyrighted materials

that provide that value.

And so in order to protect

that value, there are three

fundamental things that

you absolutely must do.

One, you need to create

original materials.

Remember that copyright

protects original creative

materials only, so if you.

Are using third party

materials, in order to

provide value to your

clients, yes, your clients

are getting the value.

let's say you have licensed,

some materials from a

training program that

you went through, and now

you're able to use those

materials for your clients.

for instance, I mean I was

just looking at the one page

business plan book I had.

One on my shelf for

ages and ages and it was

interesting conditioned cuz

I hadn't cracked it open.

And so I was going through it

and I could see that in there

you can become a certified one

page business plan consultant.

and they were talking about,

all of the testimonials about

how these consultants, made

X amount of sales once they

became a certified consultant

and started using the one page

program with their clients.

And that's great.

They absolutely have provided,

value to their clients.

They are not creating

their own assets.

They are not creating

their own copyright old

material that they can use

to control the distribution

of the derivatives of, and

license to other people.

So they're limited

to their use.

They don't have all the

other, upsides that come

from owning your own

copyrighted materials.

So create your own

original materials.

Secondly, you need to

register those that

are revenue generating.

If you're anything like

me, you're constantly

creating, materials.

You're writing

posts all the time.

You're recording

podcast, you're doing

stuff on LinkedIn.

being a guest expert inside

of someone's mastermind.

You're creating deliverables

for your clients.

you're having.

Someone on Fiverr

create, logo for you.

All the ways that copyrighted

materials are in and about

our businesses, but we don't

register all of those in

the US Copyright Office.

It's not rocket science to

do it, but there is really no

reason to register something

that you wouldn't enforce.

In a court of law, frankly,

I mean, this is my opinion,

some people might choose

to, register absolutely

everything, and it could

depend on, how valuable you

consider your non-revenue

generating materials.

Like, for instance, let's

say you have a book that

you're literally giving away.

Say it's a white paper, you're

literally giving it away.

And so it is not directly

generating revenue, but it is

a very important lead magnet.

It's part of your authority.

that is that even though

you're not selling it, that

you would consider registering

it with a copyright office.

So the second one is

register your revenue

generating materials in

the US Copyright office.

And last but definitely not

least, you wanna make sure you

are using and understanding

written agreements.

These are gonna be the

agreements that you

enter with your clients.

And if you don't have your

own template, one, you

should, but in any case, when

you have corporate clients,

Oftentimes they will require

you to sign their agreements.

You need to make sure you

understand them because

those agreements will

determine who owns what

rights in the deliverables.

So make sure those

are understood.

And then also when you

are the client, when you

are using subcontractors,

maybe you're having someone

create materials for your

business, or maybe you're

having someone come in and

help you service your client.

in those circumstances, you

should also be using and

understanding the agreements.

it's very important

again, to determine the

ownership and use of the

copyrighted materials that

are developed in connection

with those engagements

and protect you, from.

reuse of your materials,

and that applies both to

your client agreements and

your subcontract agreements.

Especially if, say you

are using facilitators to

deliver your workshops, you

wanna make sure that you

have protections in them

so that your copyrighted

materials are not being.

Use without you, that

derivatives aren't

being created without

your permission.

so those are all important

elements of your agreements

that involve copyrights.

So copyright protection

is more than copyright

registration.

You also need to make

sure that you have the

right agreements in place

to make sure that you

control those materials.

in some.

First is the value.

The value comes from

your copyright materials.

Make sure you're putting

your resources to creating

value for your clients in

the form of your copyright

materials, your trainings,

your courses, your workshops,

the deliverables, then.

The branding, which

is the trademarks.

Not that it's unimportant,

but we need to make sure

that we're putting the

right resources in the

right place, emphasizing the

value that we're creating

for our clients, and then

also, creating our brand.

And that would be in

the form of trademarks.

hopefully this was,

helpful to you.

If you have any questions,

you know where to find me.

You can either find

me@thinkbeyondip.com.

You can find me at LinkedIn.

I am the original

Aaron Austin.

Or of course, always

on YouTube as well.

So look forward to

hearing from you.

I'm always happy to

answer your questions.

Most of these LinkedIn lives

are from your questions, so

please feel free to reach

out until I see you again.