Small Businesses and Intellectual Property Reading Materials: trademarks and trade secrets

Anyone reading this blog for any time ought to know that I like trademarks and trade secrets. If you have not been here before, click the links next to word label at the end of this article to check out what else I have written on these topics.

Trademarks and trade secrets have as much importance for small businesses as for large. The difference lies in the small business owner may not know of their importance.

The following consists of articles I ran across which do a good job of explaining their importance. Contact me if after reading them, you have an Indiana business, and have more questions.

For a start, Do I Adequately Protect My Intellectual Property? covers the generalities. There are links to related articles at the bottom of the page.

I know I have mentioned the United States Patent and Trademark Office Page for small business. Well, I am mentioning it, again. Just click here.

The USPTO has created this Web site to help small businesses consider the benefits of strong IP protection - both in the United States and overseas - and decide whether it is right for them.

Hamish McRae: Why intellectual property is a vital trade for the English-speaking world:

But the narrow legal issue seems to me much less interesting than the broader one: how in practical terms should creators of intellectual property maximise the return on their investment? You could almost say: how do you make money in a world where all your ideas are liable to be stolen?

Some of the questions asked by Mr. McRae might find answers in Is Trademark the New Copyright? (which may be a bit over the top with its concentration on high tech).

What we’ve seen over the past few years is the rise of trademark as a business model. You create, or have your users create, large amounts of copyrightable content, give the content away for free, often giving up many rights to the work and then leverage your brand name to make money.