Starting a business is exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. There are many things to take care of, including funding and staffing. However, the first thing you should do when starting a business is to get your intellectual property in order.
Getting your intellectual property together means ensuring that your logo, slogan, name, new product, or book is protected under copyright law. The copyright registration process is worth going through when you’re just starting a business and want to prevent intellectual property issues.
In this article, you’ll learn about copyright when starting your business. These things are important to your intellectual property rights upon starting a new business. Here are eight things to copyright as a new business owner:
1.Your Logo
The first thing people see on your website, products, and marketing materials is your logo. Your logo is a visual representation of everything that makes your business unique; it’s the first impression people have of you and what they associate with your brand.
Since logos are essential to brand recognition, you must copyright them and everything else on this list. If someone copies one of these items without permission from the copyright holder, it can cause serious legal issues for both parties involved.
2.Your Website
You can create a website in your free time with any free platform known for website creation. You can also use paid platforms, which will be more expensive than the first option but will have better features and customization options. If you need to hire someone to help build your website, there are freelancers available on freelancing sites that you can hire for as little as $5 an hour.
Copyrighting is essential because it protects all of the content on your site from being stolen by others who want to use it without giving credit to you for creating it in the first place. By protecting yourself now through copyrighting your work, no one else will be able to steal from you later.
3.Your Tagline
A tagline is a brief phrase that describes the brand, product, or service. It’s used in advertising, marketing, and branding. A slogan is similar to a tagline but can be more extended and creative. It’s often used in brand identity campaigns as an elevator pitch that defines what your business does.
A good tagline should be memorable, concise, and simple enough to remember even after reading it once or twice. The best way to create one is by brainstorming ideas with your team members, testing them out on people outside of your business circle, and picking the final option based on the feedback you receive from everyone involved in creating it (including potential customers).
A well-written tagline can be the difference between a customer buying your product or not. It can also help you stand out from the competition by providing a layer of meaning for your brand or service. Because of this, it’s essential to protect your intellectual property rights in your tagline so that no one else can use it without permission from you or an authorized representative of yours (e.g., an attorney).
4.Your Slogan
Now that you’ve decided on a name and logo, it’s time to choose a slogan. A slogan is an impactful motto or phrase that identifies your company or product. It should be short, memorable, meaningful, easy to read, and not too long (remember: people have short attention spans).
It’s also important that you copyright this material (your slogan). If someone copies your slogan and uses it for themselves, they can cost you money in lost sales. More so, such an action can alienate potential customers who’re confused about which brand to buy from.
5.Your Name
Copyrighting a business name is an essential step in protecting your intellectual property. Your company’s name is one of the first things people associate with your brand, so it should be unique and memorable. It also serves as a customer identifier, so make sure it can be used as a domain name.
You may already have a domain name in mind for your new business venture, but you should still check to ensure this URL isn’t taken before purchasing one for yourself. If it’s not available yet, keep checking back periodically, it may become available in the future.
6.Your New Product
The next step is to create a new product that you can copyright. You’ll want this product to be unique and different from other products on the market. This will ensure that you can trademark it later if necessary. The best way to do this is by researching competitors’ products and seeing how yours differs from theirs in terms of functionality, quality, and style.
Once you’ve created your new product (or service), make sure its name isn’t too similar to another company’s trademarked or copyrighted logo or product name. You may also want the help of an intellectual property attorney before registering it with the USPTO so they can ensure all bases are covered.
7.Your Book
You can copyright your book before you publish it. There’s no reason to wait until your book is published to learn about the copyright process. That said, there are pros and cons to registering a copyright for a book that hasn’t yet been published.
You can copyright your book after you publish it. This option involves registering with the Library of Congress after publication, which may come in handy if you want legal protection for work used as part of an anthology or other collaborative project (and ultimately help protect royalties).
8.Your Idea Or Concept
If you want to protect the idea of what you’re doing, your first instinct might be to pursue a patent. While it may seem like a good idea, patents are costly and take quite a bit of time.
If your goal is to protect intellectual property (IP), copyrighting is much more cost-effective and can be done much faster than getting a patent. Copyright law protects creative works such as novels and paintings—but it also extends protection to original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many ways to copyright a business idea. It’s important to remember that you don’t need to do everything at once. If your idea is simple enough, you might only have to register the name and phrase mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
