What is IP?
IP is Intellectual Property and is an important thing to know about if you are in business both online and offline!
The best way I can help you learn a possible lesson is to tell you a story from the formation of our business!
We started out as a computer repair business years ago, but after discovering Apple Mac and the fact that computers really didn’t need the maintenance and repairs that I thought they did it was evident that if I was to have integrity I would have to stop fixing people’s old systems (which were continually getting virus issues and botched updates) and advise them to upgrade to a Mac system. Within months most of my clients had done what I advised and I was getting very little work.
As this was happening I was building a fascination for web design and the whole online marketing scene! I was spending every second I could building websites and playing with online technology, learning about how you could get programs that opened inside a browser and could completely rely on them being hosted outside your local computer therefore making backup less of an issue!
I continued on for around 3 years with my old business name in this new endeavour creating websites for my clients and building a growing list of hosting clients.
One day I had someone randomly turn to me and let me know that my business name had NOTHING to do with what I actually did for people (which was improving as a tool set by the month), and that I ought to re-brand myself. Crazy – or so I thought until someone else echoed it!
So, I set about getting my own ‘New Business Name’.
I remembered a client of mine who had closed down a business name due to a company breaking into three companies, I asked permission and started to use their old domain name as my new business name!
I created a website, sales video and even had a logo made! Then, as if it was time for me to learn a lesson, my business manager called me over to his computer and showed me that in the process of the old business shutting down – someone else had submtted a trade mark of that business name! I was gutted! All of a sudden I felt the loss of a lot of my time and energy promoting my new business name & the emotional investment I had put into this new name!
Therefore, I warn you now – guard your brands and Intellectual Property if you don’t want someone else to come along and pluck it from right under your nose!
It will save you a lot of time and money!
