Learn how to protect your content, frameworks, and ideas as a woman entrepreneur. Erin Austin shares practical IP advice you need to scale smart and stay protected.

In this episode of Visibility Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs, I sit down with Erin Austin, Harvard-educated attorney and founder of Think Beyond IP. Erin helps women entrepreneurs legally protect their intellectual property, especially in the age of AI, online content, and corporate partnerships.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

02:15 – Erin’s journey from big law to big impact

03:40 – What actually counts as intellectual property (IP)?

05:00 – How copyright protects your content

06:15 – Common IP mistakes entrepreneurs make

08:00 – What to watch for in client contracts

10:00 – Licensing vs. ownership: why it matters

13:00 – How to build original frameworks you can protect

14:30 – Risks of using AI tools like ChatGPT and Zoom

17:45 – Can you copyright humanized AI content?

21:00 – The easiest first step to protect your IP

22:30 – Erin’s upcoming workshop and how to join

Whether you're building courses, writing a book, or scaling your brand with content, this episode is a must-listen.

Welcome to the Visibility Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs

2

Podcast where we empower female business

owners to step boldly into the spotlight

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and claim the recognition they deserve.

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I'm your host, Tori Barker.

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I'm passionate about helping women

like you transform your visibility

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into tangible business success.

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Each week on this show, we'll dive deep

into game changing strategies, share

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inspiring success stories from women.

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Who've mastered their visibility and

offer practical, actionable advice

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you can implement immediately.

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Whether you're just starting your

entrepreneurial journey, pivoting

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your business model, or ready to

elevate your existing presence to new

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heights, you'll discover effective

approaches to create exciting

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opportunities and expand your reach.

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So let's harness the power

of strategic visibility and

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grow your business together.

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Welcome to the show.

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Speaker View & Screen Share:

Welcome to the Visibility Strategies

19

for Women Entrepreneurs Podcast.

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Today's guest is Erin Austin,

founder of Think Beyond ip.

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Erin is a Harvard educated attorney

helping experts scale smart

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by protecting and monetizing.

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Their ip, legally and ethically in a fast

changing world of ai, content creation and

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corporate clients, Erin is here to help

you make sure that your IP is protected.

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Hey Erin, thanks so much

for joining us on the show.

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How are you?

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I am great.

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Thank you so much, Tori.

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Excited to be here.

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Yes.

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I can't wait to hear.

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Tell us a little bit about your

story and how you became the

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founder of Think Beyond ip.

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Oh my goodness.

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Well, I spent most of my career,

uh, working for big companies while

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helping big companies get bigger.

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And there I came a point in my career

where, you know, became very apparent.

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The influence that wealth

has in our country.

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And so I wanted to see like

what can I do to help get wealth

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in the hands of more people?

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And like what transferable

skills do I have?

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And what I knew was, I knew I.

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Doing deals with corporations

and like, okay, who's on the

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other side of those deals?

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And I know, um, intellectual

property and copyright in particular.

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And so, okay.

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You know, how do I combine

these to work with a popul, a

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different population of people?

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In particular, I was interested in

working with, um, female founders

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of expertise based businesses.

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And so like, how do I help them?

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Well, I help them to realize the

value of their expertise, and also

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for them to become comfortable in

that relationship with those corporate

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clients that, you know, to treat it as

a partnership and not as a, you know,

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I'm here to do your bidding and make

sure that they really, you know, kind

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of feel confident in that relationship.

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So, kind of came all my.

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Uh, product experience kind of

came together and, uh, so very

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excited to be able to work with

this new, new, uh, demographic.

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I love that.

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And you touched on it a little

bit, but you know, as women

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entrepreneurs specifically, we

build our businesses around the

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knowledge that we have or frameworks

that we have developed over time.

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Mm-hmm.

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So how, how can we protect our signature

frameworks and make them assets?

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Yeah, I mean, what a great question.

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So, you know, most of us, you know, I

realize, I don't know Tori if you are

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ex corporate, but we do come out Yes.

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And we have the expertise that we

use and that we're now using with.

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Our clients and whatever it is

that we're using to provide value.

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So there is some sort of transformation

that we're making for our clients.

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The reason they pay us is because there's

some transformation that they seek that

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we can help them with and whatever that.

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Tool is, whether it is a training or a

course or you know, a strategy or copy,

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whatever it is, we are using some tool

to create that, um, transformation.

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And that is our intellectual property.

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Like some, you know, whatever,

whether we formalize it or not,

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whether it's just in our heads.

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Um.

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When we are using our intellect,

we're creating intellectual property.

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And so, you know, in the us and

by the way, everything I talk

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about will be under US law.

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Yeah.

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Um, in the us um, we can protect

the product of our intellectual, of

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our intellectual, our intellectual

property, um, in a couple of ways.

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Um, I work with clients with copyrights.

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And so copyright law protects

the expression of our idea.

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So when we put it down in a

tangible form, we write it down.

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When we record it in a podcast, when

we, uh, paint it, we, you know, uh.

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Sculpt it.

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You know, when we take our, uh,

ex our, um, ideas and we express

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them in some tangible way, we can

protect it under copyright law.

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And so that is how I, um, work with

my clients to help make sure they

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protect that expression of their ideas.

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And I'll just say this, that, you know,

ideas themselves cannot be protected,

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but the way that you express them can be.

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Yeah.

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You know, I think it's

so interesting because.

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It's, it's something that a lot

of entrepreneurs don't think about

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is the intellectual property.

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And, and I'm glad we're having this

conversation because it's, it's

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opening up that, uh, concept and that

thought and the idea around, well,

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yeah, I do have ownership over this.

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Right?

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And how you use it can be protected.

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So I love that, you know, specifically

you're focusing on women entrepreneurs

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'cause woo woo, here we go.

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But, um, but yeah.

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Do you find that a lot of people, when

you start talking to them, they have.

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Like they have the realization

that, oh, I never knew that,

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or I hadn't thought about that.

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Is that something that's common

when you start working with them?

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Absolutely, there's a lot

of education involved.

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Um, you know, all of us, we maybe we're

selling our time and, um, and we are, you

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know, selling the result to our clients

and that's what they're paying us for.

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Maybe we're even billing by the

hour, but we're not thinking about

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the fact that, um, every time we are

creating a deliverable, there's some.

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Intellectual property involved.

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The question is, do you own it because

you protected it or does the client

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own it because you've just, you know,

signed whatever they put in front

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of you that says they own a hundred

percent of what you deliver to them.

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And so having the conversation

about, um, first that again, you

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know, and, and this has been.

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A process for me, by the way, you

know, my, when I first started

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talking, I'm like, intellectual

capital, and everyone's like, what?

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Huh?

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You know, and then you start like,

okay, maybe I'll try to check my ip.

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And they're like, okay, let me talk about,

you know, the, the, the tools that you use

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to create value, you know, and so like,

you know, so that they're not thinking.

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Like about the legal issues, but just

about the practical issues of, yeah, what

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I use to create value for my clients.

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I wanna protect it so I can use

it for other clients or that,

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so I can build a course with it

or I can write a book with it.

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But you have to make sure you're thinking

in terms of, you know, the assets

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that you're using in your business.

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To make sure you own them and protect

them so that you can leverage them now.

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So I just kind of walking through this

concept in my head, I'm thinking about,

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you know when when you bring a client

on and you're using your intellectual

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property, obviously women entrepreneur,

entrepreneurs are, are doing contracts.

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Most of the times you're writing

contracts with your clients

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that give you some protection.

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Is that where you need to?

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Uh, add a line item about your ip,

or how do you incorporate that when

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you start working with clients?

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Yeah, so if you're, if you have a typical

corporate client, they will have their own

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template, right, that they send to you.

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And maybe it's, they have just one that

they use no matter how big or small this.

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Supplier or vendor is, maybe you'll,

you've seen one of these, it's 50

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pages long and you're like, oh my

God, I'm just doing so, but in there

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they will have some standard language

about who owns the deliverables.

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And um, you know, unfortunately,

a lot of times it's very one sided

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and it will say that the client

will own all the deliverables.

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So let's say they say, we want you to come

in and create a team building program.

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For, for our team and deliver it.

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You know, you build it because

these are our issues and

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then you're gonna deliver it.

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And so if you have signed that

agreement as is that says they

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own everything, well they own that

training that you created for them.

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Right?

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Interesting.

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Yeah.

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And so what we wanna do is make sure

that we understand, you know, obviously.

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You interview them, you find out

what the issues are, that is their

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information that will stay theirs.

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They will own it, but when you apply

their information to your framework,

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to your preexisting training

materials, to your assessments.

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Those are yours.

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You do not want to give them, uh, the

ownership rights in those materials.

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And even if we retain ownership of them,

the other way we get in trouble is okay.

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You know, you'll see like, okay,

it's, it says that I, uh, continue

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to own my preexisting materials.

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But then I grant a license

to the client to use them.

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Well, how broad is that license?

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Does that license say they

can use it in perpetuity?

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Does it say they can

create derivatives of it?

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Does it say that They can sub-license it?

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And you will see, and this is.

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Fairly common is that you'll see a

license that you grant to that client

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that lets them literally do everything

that you can do as a copyright owner,

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that they can make copies of it, that

they can distribute it, that they can

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sell it, that they can, you know, use

it with every subsidiary and every, all

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these different cohorts without you.

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And so making sure that

we have language that.

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Is really clear about how they can

use the training that you delivered.

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Um, so that, so that you

don't lose control of it.

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So what about entrepreneurs who are kind

of in the beginning of their business?

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Do, do you start at the beginning?

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Because a lot of people will

think like, oh, well, you

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know, I'm just getting started.

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Maybe I don't need this.

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Like, talk about maybe the importance

of starting at the beginning because

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I, I have a feeling that, you know,

your IP is your ip, whether you're

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just starting out or you've been

in business for years to come.

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Can you touch on that point?

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Yeah, it's never too soon to

start thinking about that.

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Now, it may be when you first start

your business and you have, you

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know, your old employer, you know,

says, Hey, can you do this for you?

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And then a friend says,

Hey, can you do this?

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And you don't really

have your own framework.

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You just know how to write

copy or you know how to.

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You know, design websites, whatever

it is, and you just do it right.

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But then over time you will develop

your own ways of doing things and

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you do wanna make sure, um, that

you are protecting those things.

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And we wanna make sure that it's original.

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The biggest, um, issue

is if you wanna own it.

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You actually have to have created it.

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So it has to be original.

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It doesn't mean that you

don't get, um, certifications.

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A lot of people get certifications,

but if you're using only using, you

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know, third party assessments and

only using third party frameworks.

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Then you aren't going to own

those deliverables, right?

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Right.

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And so you can't use that to write

a book unless you get permission.

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Right.

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You can't use it to create a

course because that's not yours.

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And so if you're, you know, uh,

without being over, being, being

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overwhelmed, just be thinking about

as you one client, 10 clients.

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You'll start to see the patterns, you'll

start to see the, you know, they all

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have the same pain points or they all

have the same need, the same solution.

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You start to build.

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Okay, like, let me see, like I have

this signature solution that I have

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that I'm now building out because 80%

of my clients need the same thing.

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And you just literally

start to build it out.

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It's not something you

come outta the gates.

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You know, I mean, it could be, it

could be that you had, you were doing

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something in corporate that was so

niche that you can come out and you

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it immediately know what you're doing.

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But most of us don't come out that way.

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You know, we develop it

over time and just be, I.

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You know, documenting your process.

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Um, and over time it will develop into

a framework that that's original to you

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and that, um, has enough substance to it

that it would be eligible for protection.

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That's awesome.

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Now as we, as our, our, our economy and

our, our business and the industries

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and everything are, are developing,

we have this integrated, uh, tool AI

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that has come into play, which I know

everyone talks about this, right?

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Because it's, it's happening.

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It's, it's coming.

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It's here.

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It's growing.

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Whether we like it or not.

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So talk about some risks or some

things to be aware of when you're

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using AI so that you don't lose an

IP that you put into an AI chat or

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whatever it is that you're using.

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So can you touch on that a little bit?

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Yeah, so there's a couple of

different risks associated with ai.

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So let's just start, talk about

the generative ai, the chat

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GPTs and clouds of the world.

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And so for those, anything that

is in the input, so what you put

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into the chat becomes part of the

training data of that platform.

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And so if it's something confidential,

obviously you don't wanna put that

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in there because it becomes part of

the training data on the other end.

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The output.

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At this time, and who knows

how long this will last.

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In order to have copyright protection,

something has to be created by a human.

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And right now, AI isn't human.

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We'll see how long that lasts.

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But, so if you have, if you say,

you know, write an article for me

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about, um, you know, human design.

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And it writes this great article,

we can debate whether or not it will

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be great, but let's just say it's

good enough and you wanna own it.

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Well, you can't, you can, you have the

right to, uh, publish it because I.

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Nobody owns it, it's just, you

know, but you don't own it.

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So somebody else can publish the

exact same article and you would

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have no rights with respect to that.

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And so I always say, you know,

don't use AI with your moneymaker.

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So if you're creating a course or writing

of something that you want to be able to

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protect against third party, third party

infringers, you wanna be able to register

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it in the copyright office for protection.

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It cannot be AI generated materials.

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So we wanna make sure of

that when we're using.

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AI in our workflow, which can

be, you know, more insidious.

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Like for instance, today we're recording

here on Zoom, but you know, people

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will come with their Otter ai, right?

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Oh yeah.

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And so Otter is listening to

everything that you're saying and.

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You know, do you know whether or

not you know this conversation?

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You're having a conversation with

your client, they're talking about

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all their, you know, trade secrets

and you're having auto record it

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to send you a transcript later, uh,

send you a, uh, a summary later on.

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What does Otter do with all that?

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You know, you need to know what every,

every tool will have its own terms of use.

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And even worse, if it doesn't

have any, 'cause, some don't.

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They're just adding AI without

having specific terms of use.

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Um, you need to understand what it is

doing with the materials that you're.

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You know, however you're using

that platform, whether it's,

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you know, Clickup has it now.

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Canva has it, zoom has it, Adobe has it.

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I mean, you name it, you know if

you're using the AI assistant in

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those, you need to make sure you

understand how they're using your data.

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So you talked a little bit about, um, AI

generating content for you and that you

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can't own that because it's not human.

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Mm-hmm.

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What if you humanize the AI

content, so like you get like a

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rough draft and then you put your

own spin on it, you make edits.

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Then does that become something

that you can technically own?

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Yeah.

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So there's no.

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Uh, formula, but basically, uh,

the, the copyright office, just

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copyright office has, um, said

the fact that some AI generated

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content is included in the end work.

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The final work does not preclude

it from copyright protection,

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but basically the part that is AI

generated would not be, um, protected.

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But the part that is

human created would be.

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And so obviously the more trans.

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Form the AI generating content

is to the final content, the

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greater the protection will be.

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And you know, sometimes it's very

easy to see like what's human like.

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Maybe you say, you know, AI just

writes some like little vignettes

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for me, but you've written all the

other stuff so you can very easily

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say, okay, the vignettes aren't.

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Uh, protected, but all the other

stuff is, but a lot of times, you

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know, it's a rough draft and then

you create a layer on top of it.

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And, um, and it just is, I mean, at

the end of the day, 'cause the, the

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copyright office isn't gonna, like,

it'll ask you if you wanna register it.

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They'll ask you, you know, is

there anything you wanna disclaim?

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And, you know, you'd say no

'cause you wrote the whole thing.

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Yeah.

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But you won't really know

until there is an infringement.

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Right.

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And, and someone.

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Publishes something that is

very similar to yours and you're

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like, no, no, I wrote this.

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I wrote it in the copyright office.

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And they're like, Hey, this is just

what came outta chat GPT, you know?

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And it might not be different enough,

you know, like, so you really don't know.

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So you know, again, if it's

something that you is in.

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Important enough to you

that you would hire a lawyer

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because somebody infringed it.

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Make sure it's original.

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Like don't take that risk.

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Right.

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So that would be my recommendation.

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Yeah, absolutely.

335

Yeah.

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It's so it, I'm sure this is evolving as

AI and technology evolves, like mm-hmm.

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What.

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What is copyrighted?

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How do you know that

this is from an AI tool?

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How do you know what's humanized?

341

I'm sure it's like mm-hmm.

342

For you, you're always kind of like trying

to say one step ahead to understand Yes.

343

Mm-hmm.

344

Where your rights are, where the

ip, you know, basically lies.

345

So.

346

I'm sure that's fascinating.

347

Yeah.

348

Yeah.

349

I mean, I, I, I'll say that, uh, you

know, as it's evolved, you know, three

350

years ago when I first started, um,

you know, when I became aware of,

351

you know, kind of the consumer level

ai, you know, the chat GBTs, and when

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I, that was what it was all about.

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But as it's developed.

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As it's part of all of our workflows.

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Like it's just, you know, in there and

the development of what is called agentic,

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ai, AI that can make decisions, you know,

and just proceed without you completely,

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without any human intervention.

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Like for me, that's more

interesting, but it doesn't

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mean that the other stuff isn't.

360

I think most of us kind of understand

that, um, when we're using chat,

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GBT, we shouldn't put confidential

stuff in there and you know,

362

but, um, really understanding.

363

What our, our pro productivity

tools are doing has become kind

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of the next frontier, especially

when you have corporate clients

365

because they will, will wanna know

what you're doing with their data.

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Yeah, absolutely.

367

Mm-hmm.

368

Awesome.

369

Okay, well, let's, I wanna wrap it

up with, um, one final question.

370

So if someone's building a visibility.

371

Brand, uh, or a visibility based brand.

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What's one simple step that they can take

to help legally protect some of their IP

373

without feeling overwhelmed or, you know,

not really understanding where to start?

374

What's one?

375

One step that they can take.

376

Yeah.

377

Well, putting it into a concrete form

like your podcast, so when you are

378

recording it, you've created a asset

that is eligible for copyright protection

379

and uh, and so making sure that we

are putting it in a tangible format.

380

Writing, recording, you know, um, those

things that we can protect, then we can

381

make sure that other people can't copy it.

382

Um, but I also wanna always

encourage people to not.

383

Not be afraid to get their ideas

out there, because at the end of the

384

day, you know, to become known for

something, you have to spread your

385

ideas as far and as wide as you can.

386

And so I know there will be people

like, I'm afraid to publish this.

387

'cause then someone's gonna steal it.

388

Well then no one's gonna

know about it either, right?

389

Yeah.

390

So, yeah, so making sure

that, um, you, you know, just.

391

Uh, stay in your zone of genius by,

you know, talking about, uh, you know,

392

your expertise and, uh, and make sure

you're publishing and recording and

393

that's the best thing that you can do.

394

And you can't keep your

greatness a secret, right?

395

You can't, it doesn't work that way.

396

So tell us how people can get in

touch with you, um, stay connected.

397

Are there any things, uh, that you have

that you want to share with the audience?

398

Um, just tell us how, how people

can start to, to get connected

399

and learn more about you.

400

Yeah.

401

So thank you for that.

402

So, um, my website is think beyond ip.com.

403

And there you can sign up for my

newsletter of a weekly newsletter

404

where I talk about, um, you know.

405

Uh, exp you know, scaling expertise,

so making sure that you own and control

406

it, including, you know, obviously the

AI issues involved with that as well.

407

And I also do LinkedIn lives at least

once a month, sometimes more frequently,

408

um, where you can bring your questions

and, um, we'll talk about copyright ai.

409

Uh, as well.

410

And, uh, and then I am working on a

workshop, um, where we will get together

411

and, uh, create our own AI usage

policies, um, based on our own, uh.

412

Productivity tech stack so that

we understand exactly, you know,

413

everything that is in our tech stack.

414

Understanding the legal

risks associated with them.

415

Um, we talk about bias issues.

416

We didn't talk about that today,

but the bias and attribution

417

issues that come along with it.

418

Um, we, we make sure that our

contracts, um, reflect, both protect

419

our clients, but also protect.

420

Ourselves.

421

Um, and so yeah, I'm

really excited about that.

422

So I have a wait list, uh, for, for

that, for when that launches again, so.

423

Awesome.

424

Well, I'll definitely put some links in

the show notes to your website, to your

425

LinkedIn profile and then, uh, if you

have a link for that, I can, obviously, I.

426

Put a link in there for the wait list.

427

But Erin, thank you so

much for being a guest.

428

It was a pleasure to meet you, to talk

with you, to just understand the world

429

that you live in and how, you know we

all have this IP and this knowledge

430

that we should shouldn't overlook.

431

Yes.

432

And so thank you for

shedding a light on that.

433

Well, thank you for having me.

434

It's been a joy.

435

Thank you.