The Laws of the IP's

Hello and welcome to entry number two!

Today's blog is about IP laws and trademarks.

 

We began our workshop with a presentation from Patent Attorneys Ross Clarke and Ian Drew, both from Davies Collison Cave, Australia's leading patent and trademark attorney firm. This was speedy and impressive, and filled with important details on the what and the how of patenting and trademarking Intellectual Property.

Beginning with Trademarks (TM's) - Defined by the TM's Act in 1995 as being signs used to distinguish  goods or services in trade, including words, letters, name packaging, shape color, etc, and anything else they come up with! TM's help to gain a competitive advantage from free riders, and protect consumers from being mislead. Protecting TM's is about protecting the goodwill of your company, which in this case of business refers to the  intangible asset on the balance sheet because it is not a physical asset like buildings or equipment (or doughnuts). Goodwill also typically reflects the value of assets like brand names, good customer and employee relations, and patents or propriety tech.  


While registering TM's can be a pricey but the benefits are great and include, providing the owner with exclusive rights to the mark, defense to infringement of other registrations, notification function; arks are on the public record), trade-able and license-able propriety right, TM's block third party applications, registered TM's can be traded with or without business goodwill, they are a basis for customs seizure provisions, and they help to stop counterfeit goods (as listed by R Clarke & I Drew, 26 March).

The following is a somewhat ironic example of a company's fight regarding the goodwill of their ..empire;
In the year 2000Playboy enterprises tried to sue search engines Excite and Netscape for using pornographic banner advertisements when the words "Playmate" and "Playboy", both registered TM's of Playboy enterprises, were used in a search. Playboy Enterprises felt that the pornography "diluted" the quality of the Playboy name, and also felt negatively regarding the profit Excite was earning form its TM's.
In this particular case, Playboy claimed infringement eventhough it's TM was not used and for this reason the court case was dismissed. In addition to this the case was dismissed because the judge felt that the words playmate and playboy belonged not only to Playboy enterprises but were also commonly used words in the English language.
The article further discusses that" if Playboy enterprises had of won their case, this could have lead to more intrusive lawyering on the internet".
for something that relies so heavily on advertising, this would be problematic.

Paris Hilton TM'd her catch phrase "That's Hot", and in 2007 when Hallmark used it on a card with an image resembling the image of the Hilton Heiress she successfully sued them. This is a perfect example of the benefits of Trade Marking Intellectual Property.

 Just for laughs, here are 15 of the most ridiculous trademarking attempts ever.



Hope that one wasn't too trashy!:)






 

Value Propositions

Hello and welcome to my very first blog!
This is the place where will be sharing my knowledge gained from my commercialization course (and the internets!) More specifically these entries will be relative to topics that are discussed in my fortnightly workshop, hosted by the Fabulous Polly McGee! ((That introduction took me almost an hour.. just saying.))

I missed the the first workshop and had a wee bit of catch up to do, but this is ok.

Value Propositions were the first topic covered. Before researching the internets, a Value Proposition is the spiel that I as the service provider give to you as the consumer, to make you want  to purchase what I offer!

On the first night of presentations, <name>'s presentation which was the first of them all, kicked off with a 'how to' on giving the elevator speech.
not unlike the above mentioned spiel, the elevator speech consists of a short and concise message, that must both interest and inform the person/s interested enough to make them feel like you have what it is that they need, and make them want m0ar.

Aileen Pincus' article in Bloomberg Business Week claims that it's one of the best things a business person can do, that is "speak about their business to others".
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-06-18/the-perfect-elevator-pitchbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

Further discussed is the importance of understanding the in's and out's of your business, and being able to translate that into what people need, and selling to them what they want.

There also seem to be many sites online explaining how to make yours "the one" (for a sometimes not such a small fee!), but it seems that its your understanding and knowledge of your product or service is what counts. That and your ability to listen to what people are saying. Along with the "how to create your value proposition..." are the suggestions on how to find out what people want. The best one, in my opinion, is market research. Literally asking people what they want. If you are able to target what ever demographic you are aiming at, this would be even better, more precise. "Men With Pens" say you should eavesdrop on your customer in their natural environment. This is great advice if its physically possible. Following this is what they call walk the dog. This is where you go for a walk, preferably with your dog, and pretend you are the customer. Let your subconscious mind wander (with the dog) and see what you come up with.
If I have learned anything from Miss Polly McGee, it is that Social Media is the way to go. Ask the masses! See for yourself what people exalt and what people shit-can.

Laura Lake's article on about.com states "Once you've found the common denominating need you can determine what it is that they are in search of and develop your value proposition around that need". This is good advice, listening to what people want, and then catering your service around exactly that .

This is where I leave my first ever blog entry!
I'm sure if I come back to edit it I'll end up scrapping it, so.. this is where I leave it!

Cheers - hope that wasn't to painful!

:)