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Listen "Intellectual Property Rights, Code and Implementations with Erin Austin"
Episode Synopsis
Navigating to the world of business is quite ambiguous. Not everyone has fully understood what it takes to grow the business and understand how intellectual property works. For many businesses, intellectual property secures more than just concepts or ideas; it also insures actual business assets, prevents unauthorized use of inventions, creations, and ideas, and grants one or more inventors exclusive rights.
Erin Austin, a consultant and a lawyer, will indulge us how the concept of intellectual property works and why it is important to understand it fully. She helps entrepreneurs to grow their business. Let's dive in, and listen to her today!
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Listen to the podcast here:
Intellectual Property Rights, Code and Implementations with Erin Austin
Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. Today, we’re going to talk about intellectual property. It’s a topic I think that a lot of people either overlook or don’t completely understand because it is a bit nebulous. Not everyone really understands when you come up with an idea or when you come up with a process, a product, even a logo or a company name, what it means to have that intellectual property, how that resonates with your business, and what you need to do to protect that for your business to operate properly. My guest today is all about intellectual property, Erin Austin. Her business is called Think Beyond IP and she helps anyone looking to grow their business to understand and navigate the world of intellectual property. And she also has a podcast called Hourly to Exit.
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Erin, welcome to the program.
Thank you so much. I’m very pleased to be here. Looking forward to this conversation.
Definitely. Thank you so much. I’ve wanted to talk with people about intellectual property for quite a while because it is something that people, they either overlook or don’t know how to wrap their heads around. What does intellectual property mean at its most basic level?
Great. So, first, I’m going to do my lawyer thing and I’m just going to say that what we’re going to talk about today is just information. There’s nuance to everything. Even if we talk about some examples, there’s always going to be something that’s different for everybody so we’re talking in generalities and if you do have specific questions, then you do need to consult with your own lawyer. With that out of the way.
Thanks for the caveat, there’s no one formula, you can just say, A plus B equals C, there’s always going to be something about your situation.
Absolutely, absolutely. Intellectual property, so, as you mentioned, there are four categories: copyright, trademarks, trade secrets, and patents. I will just say right off the top, patents is a very specific area of the law. I do not practice in it. We all are familiar with patents, probably. The pharmaceutical industry, obviously, they get patents on their medications and people who create inventions get patents on their inventions. I work with people in the expertise space and most of what their intellectual property would fall into the first three buckets: copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. Copyrights are things that are original and that have been put down in some concrete form, which also could be digital, so when you write something down, when you paint a painting, when you take a photograph, when you shoot a film, when you create blueprints, those original expressions, once you put them down in whatever the concrete form is, the copyright, meaning the exclusive right to make copies, distribute, create derivatives of that material belongs to the copyright owner.
Trademarks denote the origin of a good or service.Share on X
So, whenever you see the trademarked golden arches of McDonald’s, you know that’s a McDonald’s. Whenever you see the trademarked brown color of a UPS truck, you know it’s a UPS truck. Whenever you see the swoosh of a Nike logo, you know it’s a Nike logo product. Those can be words, images, colors, even sounds. I think NBC --- I don’t think they even use that anymore. I haven’t watched television in so long, I’m just aging myself right now.
Yeah. We all remember that, thum, thum, thum, yeah, whatever it is. Yeah.
And so that denotes like, “Okay, I’m on NBC because I hear…” And then trade secrets, unlike copyrights and trademarks which you do register, trade secrets have their value because you keep them confidential and so you do that by using your confidentiality agreements, either separate agreements or in your services agreements, and that you share it only on a case by case basis and examples of those would be the Coca-Cola formula, the KFC recipe, things that if other people learn about them, then the value of them immediately drops significantly and so those would be trade secrets.
So with a trade secret, is this a case where if you’re forming a partnership, you need to sign a nondisclosure agreement about it or does the trade secret registration already cover the fact that whoever is told the formula for Coca-Cola or the formula for how many onions you put on a McDonald’s burger or whatever already or they should know that they can’t share just by virtue of the fact that there is a trade secret register associated with it?
Yeah, so, first, trade secrets are the only form of intellectual property that you do not register because all registrations are public. So, when you register your book in the copyright office, you submit a sample of it so it’s all there. When you register your trademark, it’s in the trademark office so it’s right there. When you register a patent, you register the way to make it. So those things are publicly known. So, if it’s a trade secret that you don’t want anyone to know, because, I mean, at the end of the day, like let’s just take the Coca-Cola formula, which is a trade secret, I have no idea what it is but I’m guessing that if we knew the exact combination of materials, any of us could do it. So it’s not that complicated. I’m guessing it’s not that complicated, but it’s just that they’ve perfected it and it’s unique to them and so the value is making sure that people can’t copy it.
In order to protect that trade secret, yes, you absolutely have to protect that by the way you keep it confidential through confidentiality agreements and through keeping it locked up and disclosing it only for the people who absolutely positively have to.
So these copyrights and trademarks are things that you register and when you register it with the public domain, you can have your legal protection around people copying it based on that registration, whereas a trade secret is something that you need to protect yourself through non-disclosure agreements or whichever other forms of privacy policies and I’m thinking about anyone that’s ever had a job where the first three weeks at work is all these like data security videos about how like we don’t even log on without a VPN to an unsecure network because someone might come in and steal that information.
Absolutely.
Trade secret is really it’s in your own hands almost completely, whereas the other ones, it seems like there’s a legal entity that knows, my example I often give is that there was one time I was going on a ski trip and I tried to make t-shirts that said “YOLO” on it and just to find out that that trademark had been claimed by Young Money Entertainment, aka Drake, which threw me for a loop. I was like, oh my gosh, like people were seeing YOLO before that song even came out, but I guess they were the first ones to trademark it and claim that intellectual property, because someone comes up with something, you’re talking with your friends and you come up with like a clever phrase, your first thought is not, “Oh, how do I trademark this phrase? How do I copyright whatever I did?” your first thought was, “Oh, I’m funny. I’m more popular now,” and blah, blah, blah and that’s it.
Right, right. That’s funny. So, yeah, so I’m going to try to back up to the first thing you said, which was regarding when you register trademarks and copyrights, they are publicly disclosed but they are in the public domain and I’m going to make the distinction because public domain basically means that there is not protections with respect to use of it. If I record Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, it is in the public domain, I don’t have to pay Beethoven’s heirs in order to use it because it’s passed into the public domain.
Yeah, that’s 75 years, I think it is.
Yeah. I mean, it keeps changing because Hollywood keeps pushing it out there. Mickey Mouse. Mickey can’t let Mickey Mouse go into the public domain. And I think he’s 100 years old now, I think.
Yeah, they keep pushing it to protect Disney’s whatever, but, yeah, so public registry, because publicly registered means that everyone knows that this is your intellectual property. The public domain is what it enters when it theoretically reaches that point, like Happy Birthday, like you don’t have to pay the person who wrote that song in 18-whatever every penny ---
I don’t know that that’s true. I don’t know how old it is. Honestly, I don’t know if it’s that old, because I feel like there’s something that people commonly use that we’re all shocked to find out that it’s not in the public domain because we all just use it and it might be Happy Birthday but I’m just not sure. So it didn’t come from me that Happy Birthday is in the public domain, just saying.
Yeah, okay, cool.
So, yes, it is in your control to make sure you keep that trade secret.
Why it’s intellectual property is because the intellectual property laws protect and give a remedy in the event of an infringement.Share on X
So if someone copies your book and sells it under their name,
Erin Austin, a consultant and a lawyer, will indulge us how the concept of intellectual property works and why it is important to understand it fully. She helps entrepreneurs to grow their business. Let's dive in, and listen to her today!
---
Listen to the podcast here:
Intellectual Property Rights, Code and Implementations with Erin Austin
Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. Today, we’re going to talk about intellectual property. It’s a topic I think that a lot of people either overlook or don’t completely understand because it is a bit nebulous. Not everyone really understands when you come up with an idea or when you come up with a process, a product, even a logo or a company name, what it means to have that intellectual property, how that resonates with your business, and what you need to do to protect that for your business to operate properly. My guest today is all about intellectual property, Erin Austin. Her business is called Think Beyond IP and she helps anyone looking to grow their business to understand and navigate the world of intellectual property. And she also has a podcast called Hourly to Exit.
---
Erin, welcome to the program.
Thank you so much. I’m very pleased to be here. Looking forward to this conversation.
Definitely. Thank you so much. I’ve wanted to talk with people about intellectual property for quite a while because it is something that people, they either overlook or don’t know how to wrap their heads around. What does intellectual property mean at its most basic level?
Great. So, first, I’m going to do my lawyer thing and I’m just going to say that what we’re going to talk about today is just information. There’s nuance to everything. Even if we talk about some examples, there’s always going to be something that’s different for everybody so we’re talking in generalities and if you do have specific questions, then you do need to consult with your own lawyer. With that out of the way.
Thanks for the caveat, there’s no one formula, you can just say, A plus B equals C, there’s always going to be something about your situation.
Absolutely, absolutely. Intellectual property, so, as you mentioned, there are four categories: copyright, trademarks, trade secrets, and patents. I will just say right off the top, patents is a very specific area of the law. I do not practice in it. We all are familiar with patents, probably. The pharmaceutical industry, obviously, they get patents on their medications and people who create inventions get patents on their inventions. I work with people in the expertise space and most of what their intellectual property would fall into the first three buckets: copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. Copyrights are things that are original and that have been put down in some concrete form, which also could be digital, so when you write something down, when you paint a painting, when you take a photograph, when you shoot a film, when you create blueprints, those original expressions, once you put them down in whatever the concrete form is, the copyright, meaning the exclusive right to make copies, distribute, create derivatives of that material belongs to the copyright owner.
Trademarks denote the origin of a good or service.Share on X
So, whenever you see the trademarked golden arches of McDonald’s, you know that’s a McDonald’s. Whenever you see the trademarked brown color of a UPS truck, you know it’s a UPS truck. Whenever you see the swoosh of a Nike logo, you know it’s a Nike logo product. Those can be words, images, colors, even sounds. I think NBC --- I don’t think they even use that anymore. I haven’t watched television in so long, I’m just aging myself right now.
Yeah. We all remember that, thum, thum, thum, yeah, whatever it is. Yeah.
And so that denotes like, “Okay, I’m on NBC because I hear…” And then trade secrets, unlike copyrights and trademarks which you do register, trade secrets have their value because you keep them confidential and so you do that by using your confidentiality agreements, either separate agreements or in your services agreements, and that you share it only on a case by case basis and examples of those would be the Coca-Cola formula, the KFC recipe, things that if other people learn about them, then the value of them immediately drops significantly and so those would be trade secrets.
So with a trade secret, is this a case where if you’re forming a partnership, you need to sign a nondisclosure agreement about it or does the trade secret registration already cover the fact that whoever is told the formula for Coca-Cola or the formula for how many onions you put on a McDonald’s burger or whatever already or they should know that they can’t share just by virtue of the fact that there is a trade secret register associated with it?
Yeah, so, first, trade secrets are the only form of intellectual property that you do not register because all registrations are public. So, when you register your book in the copyright office, you submit a sample of it so it’s all there. When you register your trademark, it’s in the trademark office so it’s right there. When you register a patent, you register the way to make it. So those things are publicly known. So, if it’s a trade secret that you don’t want anyone to know, because, I mean, at the end of the day, like let’s just take the Coca-Cola formula, which is a trade secret, I have no idea what it is but I’m guessing that if we knew the exact combination of materials, any of us could do it. So it’s not that complicated. I’m guessing it’s not that complicated, but it’s just that they’ve perfected it and it’s unique to them and so the value is making sure that people can’t copy it.
In order to protect that trade secret, yes, you absolutely have to protect that by the way you keep it confidential through confidentiality agreements and through keeping it locked up and disclosing it only for the people who absolutely positively have to.
So these copyrights and trademarks are things that you register and when you register it with the public domain, you can have your legal protection around people copying it based on that registration, whereas a trade secret is something that you need to protect yourself through non-disclosure agreements or whichever other forms of privacy policies and I’m thinking about anyone that’s ever had a job where the first three weeks at work is all these like data security videos about how like we don’t even log on without a VPN to an unsecure network because someone might come in and steal that information.
Absolutely.
Trade secret is really it’s in your own hands almost completely, whereas the other ones, it seems like there’s a legal entity that knows, my example I often give is that there was one time I was going on a ski trip and I tried to make t-shirts that said “YOLO” on it and just to find out that that trademark had been claimed by Young Money Entertainment, aka Drake, which threw me for a loop. I was like, oh my gosh, like people were seeing YOLO before that song even came out, but I guess they were the first ones to trademark it and claim that intellectual property, because someone comes up with something, you’re talking with your friends and you come up with like a clever phrase, your first thought is not, “Oh, how do I trademark this phrase? How do I copyright whatever I did?” your first thought was, “Oh, I’m funny. I’m more popular now,” and blah, blah, blah and that’s it.
Right, right. That’s funny. So, yeah, so I’m going to try to back up to the first thing you said, which was regarding when you register trademarks and copyrights, they are publicly disclosed but they are in the public domain and I’m going to make the distinction because public domain basically means that there is not protections with respect to use of it. If I record Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, it is in the public domain, I don’t have to pay Beethoven’s heirs in order to use it because it’s passed into the public domain.
Yeah, that’s 75 years, I think it is.
Yeah. I mean, it keeps changing because Hollywood keeps pushing it out there. Mickey Mouse. Mickey can’t let Mickey Mouse go into the public domain. And I think he’s 100 years old now, I think.
Yeah, they keep pushing it to protect Disney’s whatever, but, yeah, so public registry, because publicly registered means that everyone knows that this is your intellectual property. The public domain is what it enters when it theoretically reaches that point, like Happy Birthday, like you don’t have to pay the person who wrote that song in 18-whatever every penny ---
I don’t know that that’s true. I don’t know how old it is. Honestly, I don’t know if it’s that old, because I feel like there’s something that people commonly use that we’re all shocked to find out that it’s not in the public domain because we all just use it and it might be Happy Birthday but I’m just not sure. So it didn’t come from me that Happy Birthday is in the public domain, just saying.
Yeah, okay, cool.
So, yes, it is in your control to make sure you keep that trade secret.
Why it’s intellectual property is because the intellectual property laws protect and give a remedy in the event of an infringement.Share on X
So if someone copies your book and sells it under their name,
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