Business Opportunities Weblog

December 1, 2006 by Rich Whittle | 1 Comment

Greg Brown at Work.com:

Every small business that suddenly grows big is based on an innovation of some kind. What’s less common is that the actual innovator has the focus or financial reach to turn the idea into cash. Learning how to protect your big ideas can mean later turning know-how into a business unto itself.

It’s easy to get caught up in the notion that your intellectual work is inherently valuable. But first, figure out if you actually control what you intend to sell.

For copyright, it’s easy under U.S law. Publish and you’re done, although most creative works are still marked with the telltale “C” and the date and you can, technically, register a copyright. Trademarks, like brand names or slogans, should be registered and patents — actual products or processes — are very complex and require close legal review.

To make money, you have to sell the rights to use your intellectual property (or conversely, limit access to it), but doing so is fraught with — gasp! — paperwork.

There is a raging debate among economists about the importance of protecting ideas. The much-debated “open source” model for software, such as Linux, is already being copied by, among all things, brewers. In a nutshell, an army of brains across the Web can vastly improve upon your good idea, so you might as well publish your process and invite them in.

Photo by jek in the.

In Entrepreneurial Lifestyle, Invention, Strategy | 1 Comment