I think for this episode, you're going to need to grab a coffee. We're talking about Intellectual Property today.
Hello. And welcome back to another episode of Tech Talks and Soul Walks with myself, Julie Kubiak. Now I don't want to overwhelm you in this episode, but today we're going to get quite into business. 
And especially when it comes to what's called Intellectual Property. Please don't switch off, please. Listen. Um, again, this is like the Universe telling you you're meant to be listening to this episode. And trust me, you probably might think you know what Intellectual Property is, you might not. But by the end of this episode, you are going to have a huge wealth of information. You're going to have a huge wealth of ideas and also how you can actually look at Intellectual Property in a totally different way.

Imagine you've created a logo. You've poured your heart and soul into this design. Only to see that somebody else has got that same design already. What do you do? This is where Intellectual Property comes in.
Intellectual property shields and protect your hard work. And it protects it from being hijacked. You may have written a blog post. You may have created a fantastic tweet.
Or even just a video.
That is also your Intellectual Property.
And just like anybody walking into your house and taking all your property. You wouldn't want that to happen to anything related to your business.
So what exactly is Intellectual Property and how is it determined as yours rather than anybody else's.
Well, Intellectual Property or IP for short, it's anything tangible that you can create.
It's things that you can dream up in your mind, like a logo,a catchy slogan, or even just a blog post that you've written.
It's the creative stuff.
It's not only creative, it's things that you have come up with and therefore add value to you or you as a business.
In the UK Intellectual Property is divided up into four categories. And that is Patents, Trademarks, Designs, and Copyright. And each of these four categories protects different aspects of whatever it is you have created. 
So starting off with Patents then or Patents. So I never know which way round to say it. It protects new, innovative or inventions. And it gives you exclusive rights to use or, and commercialise the invention, for a certain period of time.
Patent or Patent, means that your idea is protected and nobody else can use it,or sell it without your permission. So think Dyson think, Apple. Those kinds of things, they will have a Patent or a Patent associated with them. And you can find out online before something is approved because they have to put it to, um, usually the Patent office. And they have to run checks on it and make sure nobody else has anything similar.
Next and kind of closely associated with Patents, are Designs.
Design rights protect the visual appearance of something. If you create a unique design for your product, by registering it, it protects it from being copied, by your competitors.
Now, this would incorporate things within like the fashion industry, furniture, basically any consumer goods, where the design is the key focus. So again, to give you an example, think of Ikea and all of their furniture. Their designs will be protected so no one can copy them, but obviously they're not actually unique as such, but maybe, um, the design of it is something that is quite quirky to them.

Now in this podcast, we're just going to focus on the two other aspects of Intellectual Property, and that is Copyright and Trademarks. Now I've actually done some work in the past with the Intellectual Property Office within the UK. I've done System Testing with them and I've helped them out on website and website platform, to help users who are looking to register Intellectual Property. Either a Trademark or the Design or the Patent, Patent. I'm going to go through the entire podcast, duplicating how I can say like tomato, tomato, but bear with me, I don't want to upset anybody over this, but you've got to keep a lighthearted approach on it as well. 
So, what did I do? Well, first of all, let's have a look at what a Copyright is versus a Trademark.
So Copyright is your legal right, to anything that you exclusively own, create, put onto paper, let's say.
In the UK, anything is automatically copywritten because you've created it as a piece of work. And as soon as you create something original and tangible, as in you can touch it, feel it, see it, you automatically own that Copyright.
Now this can include, and, and it's not exclusive to books, articles, artistic work, logos, graphics, anything, even music, audio, scripts, the whole lot. And you do not need to register these. So there was no cost implication whatsoever to you or your business with regards to Copyright. It is by default, yours. So the blog posts that you wrote last week, that's yours. That is your own Intellectual Property.
If you were an artist that's just created the most beautiful mural or, um, abstract piece of art work. Copyright is again, exclusively yours. No one can reproduce it. No one can distribute it. No one can even display that piece of work without your permission.
 And people then have to approach you if they would want to recreate it, repurpose it or anything else.

So if Copyright is exclusively and immediately yours, what is a Trademark then? Well, a Trademark is all about the branding. Either of a person or business. Think of the big brand logos, like Nike, the swoosh tick. Uh, the Apple where it's already had an Apple. Uh, bites taken out of the apple. The McDonald's golden arches, the M for the McDonald's. These are Trademarked and these mean they legally protected. Which means that nobody else can use them in any way, shape or form. Trademarks typically cover things like logos, brand names and even unique products shapes. 
And I know because I've worked with the Intellectual Property Office, it can also include sounds, believe it or not. Like little, Whoosh of, you know, if you created that, with the Nike logo, and you had a Whoosh! with it, that can be Trademarked as well.
Now Trademarks because they protect a brand, and it's the symbols, the shapes, the names, the logos, everything else, it's the goods and services that they're associated with, they do need to be registered. And obviously, therefore there is a cost implication with that as well. So, if you think of your Trademarks as a 'Mark of Honor' to your business, you would actually want to protect them rather than just saying 'yes, that's mine', and then arguing over. You know, over the internet over whether or not somebody has stolen a piece of work that you've done. By paying that money to the Intellectual Property Office for your Trademark, it is then registered and logged and it is then recognisable because you can use it on everything. 
And everybody then knows that logo or that business name, whatever it is, because it can be a visual logo. It can be a catchphrase, slogan, whatever it is. When that's Trademarked, that is then associated with your business name and you can then put it everywhere. People, or customers will then recognise you because you have a Trademark. And the difference at this point, all you need to know is you can put the letter C on anything that you create and you have automatically said that it is copywritten to you. You put the C logo on, your name or your business name, and the current year.
Or if you want to Trademark it so nobody can take it and you have paid for that kind of cover, 
it is lodged with the Intellectual Property Office. And they check to see if anything else is similar, that's out there. Or if it's already in use. You then get to own that Trademark. And you own that Trademark for 10 years. You then renew it every 10th... within the 10th year or before the end of the 10 years, and you retain your Trademark. But do be careful because they can lapse. So you need to keep on top of things. And I know 10 years seems a long way off, but trust me in a business, it just flies by.


Now I've just been on a course the last couple of days, which actually, uh, went into Trademarks and I've got to say the only thing that I learned, which I kind of knew, but hadn't really thought about it, was the fact that Disney is one of the biggest Brands, I can't say in the world, but you know what I'm saying. 
It's the most well-known. Everything that Disney ever touch or do or say, that is their Intellectual Property. Now they started off with animated films. They are the core of their Intellectual Property. Everybody knows them. Everybody knows of them. But it just doesn't stop there. With Intellectual Property they then turned their characters into merchandise. They turned it into theme parks, attractions, um, albums, because you used to be able to buy the albums, and all the songs that went with the films as well. They've even got cruise liners now... where does it stop!? And the thing is, by every piece of content that they create, it's another part of their business. And it constantly reinforces their brand and their brand image. And the fact that you can go into a Disney shop and buy practically anything from a pen, a badge book, a bag all the way through to the. Um, going on a Disney cruise, a Disney hotel, their theme parks, their rides, absolutely everything... all of it is Intellectual Property. 
Yes, they will have Trademarked everything and anything to do with the Intellectual Property because they are big, massive business. And a disclaimer, they can afford it as well. But they also want to protect everything to do with Disney and rightly so, because it is a big company.
But we're not all big companies. 
If you're a small company and I've come up with an idea here. I've just got my notes in front of me. And if you had a fictitious business, because I don't want to use any particular business out there at the minute. But we're going to call this business EcoGlow. Okay. Small company creates eco-friendly beauty products. So their Intellectual Property, isn't just the products. It's the logo. Their product names. The design of the packaging.
Even any 'How to...' videos on how to use those products. Maybe that they put online. Each of these elements is valuable and worth protecting. But. They have to look at it as though it's whole business and protect everything.
IP or Intellectual Property. isn't just for these big businesses. Sole Traders, even if you don't run a company as such, so we were talking freelancers, independent creators, and somebody that might just be a contractor... you have got IP too. You've got your own Intellectual Property, whether or not you realise that, I don't know. You could be a graphic designer and designing things without even thinking about it. If you're a writer, your articles that you write, the books that you're writing. Even if you're a consultant unique methods and approaches that you are creating, forming, sharing with anybody. That is still your own intellectual property.
And it doesn't matter how big or how small a company is. First and foremost, everything should be copywritten or Copyrighted to say it is yours. But if you want to protect your brand, your logo, your, um, Uh, taglines. Then you go down the route of Trademarks.


A simple way of protecting some of your information if you are say a photographer. You could put a watermark through your photographs. And I think everyone's seen where you've had. Um, I can't think what the term is, where you have the, um, initial proof. That's the proof of the photos. And it usually has the watermark of the photographer through them. So that is one way to protect it. 
So even if somebody said 'I don't want to pay for the whole photo shoot', but goes to put it on social media. They can't. remove that watermark.
They then can't sell on prints. They can't use those images without, rightfully so, paying the artist for their time and their effort. And therefore the Intellectual Property resides with the person who has created that image, the photo. Even though it is of somebody else. You're in effect kind of paying for the time and money. 
So you're paying for that Intellectual Property and then you are taking an ownership of it, because you have then brought it from them. You can then use it as the person who has then bought it.


So you probably now beginning to wonder. What about me? What Intellectual Property do I have? And when I say me, I mean, you, the listener, the viewer. If you're running your own business, you probably got more Intellectual Property than you actually think. And you've probably never even thought about it. 
But basically first and foremost, if you have a logo. A name. A business name. They are your Intellectual Property. Any blog posts, any social media content, that is also your own Intellectual Property. If you've designed any marketing materials to let people know about your business. Any videos you've created. Tweet posts. Instagram post. Instagram reels.
These can all be classed as Intellectual Property.
And by saying that it's Copyright, you then don't have to pay anything. It is automatically yours. You own the copyright.


Now, if you take a look at everything that you have created, ever, to do with your business. Or anything regarding the advertising, promoting, the selling... the whole lot. You've got to ask yourself the question. 'Is this unique to my brand?
Would I be upset if somebody stole it from me'? And that's the key thing here. How would you feel if somebody recreated it, took it from you, blatantly used it and said it was theirs.
If it is, or if you would hate that happen to you, that's your own Intellectual Property and you need to do something and it's worth protecting.
So. Just taking a step back from this for a minute. You've got some work to do, and you've got some thinking to do at this point.
You need to start thinking about all the Intellectual Property that you may have ever created.
Like I say it could be anything from a blog post. A tune. Uh, a video you've created.
Next you have to state that it's your own Copyright and you need to put that on your work.
And it's as simple as put in that little tiny letter C and the circle. Your name, or your business name and the year. The current year. But you've got to go back and you've got to do that on every piece of work that you want to be exclusively yours. And even creating memes, if you've created it and generated it yourself. Put it on that or put your logo on there. 
Something that determines that it is yours.
So once you've looked at the Intellectual Property, and again, let's use the example of this EcoGlow business. So they've got, maybe they've paid for their Trademark and had their logo Trademarked or their chatchy catchphrase. Then they look at all the other Intellectual Property and they put Copyright over all their leaflets. Um, maybe some fantastic blog posts they put Copyright at the bottom of every single blog post. But the whole system doesn't just stop there. They then create a YouTube video or YouTube channel first and then create a YouTube video.
Maybe they share tips on how to use their products. Or, uh, create posts on, um, Product launches. Might go off and write an ebook on the history of their business.
They might also design eco-friendly boxes and packaging that could possibly be recycled. Anything that they're doing within the business, that is still an extension of that Intellectual Property. And again; Copyright. Name. Year.


Also Sole Traders have exactly the same protection.
If we had a freelance graphics designer called. Alex. He could write a blog post on a unique way of doing his graphic designs. That's his IP. If he creates an online training course that explains the processes associated with that design process. That's his IP. And recognising and protecting all of this IP. Alex can then build this robust profile and valuable Intellectual Property, which obviously has an impact on him as a person, but also his business. 
Even if he's a Sole Trader, it doesn't matter. The Intellectual Property is still with him.
Now, to give you another example. If you were a bakery and you Trademarked, so paid for the logo that you want to use on the packaging. The packaging could be unique to you, but there's a particular tagline that you want printed on all the packaging. Maybe you want to get that Trademarked? But all the website elements as well. Be it, um, the recipes that you upload on there, the videos that you put up there, blog posts. Absolutely anything and everything. Even baking tips. I'm just trying to think off the top of my head. They are all protected by Copyright. So as you can see, there is a lot more that you probably own than you've ever, ever thought of. 
And the list just goes on and on and on. And it's going to be different, obviously, depending on what your business is, as to what my business is, and your friends' businesses. But it all has the same elements to it. It is either really going to be Trademarked to protect the business, be it a logo, tagline, images. Or it will be Copyright.


Now, again, going back to the idea of Disney. When they created their films. They obviously then branched out and created merchandise off the back of the films, their theme parks, video games. Your bakery, your fashion line, your designs. Everything that is associated with your business, even down to email marketing. Everything should be said at the end of it at the bottom of it, Copyright.
Now I. Had a lot of dealings and communication with the Intellectual Property office myself, when I decided to Trademark Masquerading, Masquerading Pets, Masquerading Productions, and Masquerading Dating. And when I worked with them on getting all the Intellectual Property registered, and obviously the cost involved with the Trademarks had to be paid. It brought to light the fact that it wasn't just the Company name that I needed to Trademark. 
It was the logos as well. And then it was the Taglines. So when you start Trademarking one thing and you then start realising certain things that you want to be protected. Do take some advice. And the, um, Intellectual Property Office, which is a Government Office in the UK, they will help you and you can contact them before filling the forms in. Or you can pay for somebody, pay for a business to actually do it for you. Now I knew exactly what I wanted. 
I'd read upon on it quite a bit. And I knew what steps I had to go through. But in a nutshell with a Trademark, it will fall into one of two categories. It will either be a Product, or a Service. And it then comes down to the next level down. So obviously Intellectual Property Offices at the very top. Then your Product or Service, whatever it is you want to protect with a Trademark, will fall into one of the two categories. Underneath whether or not it's a product to a service, you then have what are called different classes. So how they associate that, we'll call it a logo for now to make it easier. So how do you want to class that logo. And then underneath that there's different subsections within the class. So if your logo is associated with a product. What is that class number for that? But also going further forward, what could it also be? So your logo might just be for a entertainment business. It might be for a bakery. Again, that's a service. It might be for a book company. So again, that is a product and a service. So you have to choose when you look through all the different classes, which one your logo would fit under. So yes, your business creates books. So therefore it will be a product, but it also creates, um, something physical that you can touch. And therefore it would also come under X, Y Z, categories. So you get the idea. 
So once you've got your Trademark, then. You've filled in all the forms you've sent off the money and I have a feeling it's £175 as it stands at the minute. I haven't checked. That's how much I paid for the first Class that it appears in, then each subsequent class, if I can get my words out, is £50 for each different category it falls under. So Masquerading logo. I put it into various different categories that it needed to be in, 'the classes'. And then you send off the money, like I say, one Class or the first registration I should say, is £175. And then each additional Class is a further £50. If it isn't going to. Start again. If it's going to be under one Class, that's fine. You only pay £175, but then if it's going to be under three subsequent Classes as well, it's £175 plus £150 for the extra three. Then there's a cooling off period. 
So they take the application that you do and they then put it into what's called the Gazette and I think it's similar to like what I used to work at The Law Society, they had what they call was the Gazette. And also anything to do with businesses. So it goes into the Gazette. But it only appears and it's every Friday. This Gazette is uploaded or viewable. And you then have a half a feeling it's a six week wait. Because during those six weeks, anyone can go onto the Gazette and they can contest, or they can pull those Trademarks because if they already have a Trademark which is exactly the same, they can contest it. Now when the six weeks goes through, we'll assume everything is all honky-dory and there's not gonna be any problems. After the six weeks, you get an email confirmation back through from the Intellectual Property Offices and saying, 'here's your Trademark, it's yours for 10 years'. 
And you then get a certificate as well. And the certificate is just a legal document that says the business name that owns that Trademark, where the business is registered, and obviously the date to and from, sort of like the expiry date on it, basically for the 10 years. If you are Trademarking a tagline. 
So for Masquerading, I trademark. THE Social Fiction Community. It's exactly the same process. Which category or class does that tagline appear under? So what basically does your business do? Is what it's asking. So does your business come under one main class? 
And it could also maybe if not now, but in future, appear under different classes. And again, It doesn't matter if it's the logo or if it's a tagline or a sound, you have to go through the same process. You have to upload everything to them. And they check it and then they, um, put it in the Gazette. Six weeks later that it obviously it all goes through. And fingers crossed. 
You just get awarded that Tagline or that logo.
Now, apart from the actual fact that you own all the Intellectual Property yourself. Be it Copyright or be it a Trademark. You then have to start thinking not only what is it you touch, say, do or create and create even, all of that is yours. You've got to obviously protect it by putting on it, under each report that you do, each book that you write, each blog posts that you create, each video, you have to say Copyright because that is the protection. And then you can prove sort of date and time of when the video was put up or when that document was created, or when you created that piece of artwork. 


It's not just about the Intellectual Property that you are actually stamping, saying is yours. When you start to think of all the things you could do in the future. You could, if you're not doing them at the moment, you could create leaflets and flyers for your business. You might decide to go out and do a mail drop a mail. Um, A mail drop around houses. 
You might want to hand out leaflets in the center of towns, at events, things like that. Everything that you're creating, you're handing over. Make sure you've got Copyright on that. The next thing is your brand logo. If you haven't done so already put a Copyright logo on that somewhere. Even if it's just like a tagline underneath, put a little copyright logo, again, your name and the current year. Your blog posts, any articles that you write. Even any Podcasts, if you do them. Anything that you physically create, that is, you know, you can see it, touch it, feel it, or listen to it I should say. That is still yours. That's still your Intellectual Property. So go in. Pop that C on there.
You social media posts. Now you're not going to do this for every single post. But there might just be the odd one or two where maybe you're making a statement or your stressing something about the business, or something which is quite powerful. And you want to be associated with that and you don't want anyone to copy it. 
It could be, you've created a fantastic little poem or ditty, and you want to be recognised for that piece of work and not let anybody else steal it from you. Copyright it.
The videos that create, maybe you're doing behind the scenes or demos. Um, maybe guided tutorials. Put the fact on the video or at least on the YouTube channel or on Tiktok or Instagram or wherever you're posting it, that that is yours.
 eBooks E guides. Um, again, this kind of comes down to, is it as simple as a leaflet or a pamphlet? All the way through to sort of, um, War and Peace type document. If you've created it, it's yours. It's your words. Now you've got to think of it like a piece of music. If you are an artist and somebody stole your music. That's quite sickening really. You've put everything into that. It's unique. It's the lyrics. It's the sound. It's the tune. It's the little bits that all make it all up. Somebody can then go and recreate that. Copy that. Put their own twist on it, but you've written the lyrics. You've written the tune. You've written everything to do with it, even giving it the name and they then lift it and take it and do it themselves. Now that is obviously Copyrighted music and you wouldn't want that to happen. It's just like a book, a podcast, um, leaflets, flyers, brand logos, anything to do with your business, make sure it's Copyright. And then you've got something then that you can argue with them over. And say that they've actually stolen the idea, stolen that logo, stolen image.
And take any one step further, like I said already, you could potentially be moving your business into a new direction. And by Copywriting things. What you're saying is 'this is mine now'. But using what it is that you've copywritten. So your books, your Podcast. Your videos. Your your Shorts that you're creating... all of this. 
You can then upscale it. You can repurpose it. You can reuse it because it's yours. And again, it's spreading out that business name. It's spreading out, not only just like one entity, you're reusing, repurposing, and spreading it all across the internet. You're spreading all around the world technically. 
Um, because what you're doing is you're taking something that is rightfully yours. And you can reuse it.


So all of this is about business growth. It isn't just about Intellectual Property. And if you think about it and you think about it with a shot of coffee, have two shots of coffee if you want, if it's going to help. Top up later, have a third shot for God's sake, but please don't have any more than three. I certainly wouldn't, not in a day! But your mind could then start thinking of other ways that you could repurpose content that you've already created. So just like Disney, Disney created a film. And then from that they've created merchandise and blah, blah, blah. Think of it a similar way. You can take your business, you can take your business ideas and repurpose all of those. But please just say your Copyright, please. Just say it's yours. But you can take this as a whole exercise of looking at what you've got, looking at your Intellectual Property and looking at where it could take you, and which direction you could find yourself going into.


So thank you for listening to this episode of Tech Talks and Soul Walks. And I hope please, please, please see the value of your own Intellectual Property and everything that you create for your business. Everything that you do, really, you should give yourself a pat on the back for, because when you're a business owner or a sole trader, everything you do is so valuable to you.
You also setting the stage for future you, your future business, by putting in all of this protection in place. That's the word I was looking for protection and you're protecting your business. You're protecting your own assets as well.
 It also help show the world that you're very powerful within business, you know exactly what you're doing. You're protecting what you own. And it could actually just spear ahead or launch your business into the Universe.
So. Get down to business then. Start protecting all of your Intellectual Property and I'll see you in the next episode of Tech Talks and Soul Walks.

#TTSW
©️ Julie Kubiak Ltd, 2024 😉