If you’re creating content, to promote your business or services – how are you sure that you have that intellectual property protected?

Let’s have a look at one person for example – ME.

The “I’m a Millionaire. So Now What?” podcast is the platform, and I can executive produce the heck out of it. Book the guests, decide what I’m going to talk about on a given week, scheduled the recordings, etc.

Where I lack in skill is on the technical side. So, what do I do? What would you do? Well, you would hire somebody or outsource that, right? So that's exactly what I did. I hired the best.

And then – when I wanted to switch gears and shift my production in another direction – I had a rude awakening.

A podcast “glitch,” as it were. Ok, glitch is putting it mildly.

Think:

• Transition podcast production to new team.
• Thinking it was seamless.
• Then suddenly discovering *poof* we didn’t exist on iTunes!!

Yes. That happened. Heart attack city. Everything is now resolved. But lessons learned? Oh yes. There were many.

To be clear, what happened to me wasn’t malicious intent – at all. It was simply an “oops” moment that neither of us even realized could happen! And yes, eventually, after jumping through many hoops – it was resolved.

But man. The stress of those few weeks. Not fun.

So, if you are outsourcing, my little piece of advice to you is to make sure that you have control over what is being produced for you. That you know how to access all of your information. You have all of your logins and your passwords. You also want to have some kind of central hub where you have access to all of that, so that you are in full control.

Protect Your Intellectual Property

That’s why, on this week’s episode of “I’m a Millionaire. So Now What?” I thought it would be fun to interview a couple of experts on both podcast production AND intellectual property rights. Susan Diaz is the CEO and founder of marketing firm C+P Digital, and Cynthia Mason is a Canadian trademark lawyer who developed Canada’s first trademark registration software!

I asked both of them to share the most pragmatic advice they could give to a business owner – maybe a member of the Self Made Nation – who are transitioning from either a completely outsourced marketing group or who have hired a number of freelancers.

Get to Know Trademark Law

“Take an assessment of your assets and things that you have created as a business. If it's something that you've created, you should start with the assumption that you own it. And then look to whether there are any specific laws out there that will help you protect it and keep a monopoly over it. That's what the Trademarks Act does for you. That's what the Copyright Act does. That's what the Patent Act does. These are specific laws that the government has enacted, in order to give you a monopoly over the use of the creations that come out of your head. If it's the name, you've come up with a name, it's original. It's something that you have been using for a while and the public at large is starting to associate it with you. You have legal rights just by nature of that, that use in the association, and that is something that you can protect using trademark law. One of the great things about trademark law is you don't have to actively register a trademark in order to have rights in it. You have those rights just based on your use and the building reputation over time. Now, if you're talking about content, for example, your podcast, anything that you write, again, this is original work. And so, as the author and owner of that work, you own it by virtue of copyright law. And again, it's not something that you have to actively take steps to register in order to have those rights are yours just by virtue of the fact that you created it.”

Who Owns What?

“When we create materials on behalf of let's say, “I'm a Millionaire. So Now What?” or on behalf of, you know, a different brand, the assumption is that that material belongs to those people who own that brand. For example, we create materials on an ongoing basis, because it is the digital world. You need things to change on an on an ongoing basis. There's an episode every week, there's materials that go out with that episode. Now all of that material belongs to the client. Further than that, I think it is really, where does that material live? Because it's really interesting to talk about how far marketing has evolved and digital transformation has evolved over the last few years. And you know, everything is in the cloud, quote unquote. But who owns the cloud? Are you properly protected, whether it's by way of password, making sure it's not being hacked, that kind of thing. And even the micro details - at the risk of getting technical here… In who’s name are the accounts created? If you change your relationship with your current marketing partner, are you then going to have to scramble through all your materials to try and find a password or login? In general, it's best that you own everything. Even if that’s annoying, and you have to stay on the phone with someone while they verify a bunch of passwords and double authentications, you really want to own everything yourself.”

Tips for Outsourcing

“The first thing I would say is ensure that they are being clear with you about who owns the material - from an account level. Make sure all the accounts are in your name, you have the passwords to all of them, and make it somewhat of a practice to go in and check at least on a monthly basis that you're still able to log in. I think that's number one. Number two is make sure that it's secure. While there's a lot of services that are used that are free, I think when you do subscribe to something basic like Google, a free account on Google versus, you know, a paid and secure account is completely separate. So, make sure that you have that. And then the third thing I'd say is catalog it so that everybody is aware. Make a catalog of all your materials, link it out to where it is to ensure that the links are all working. That way you have an inventory – like, if you were in manufacturing, this would be your inventory list. You want to make sure that you have an audited list of all of your materials. Ownership. Security. And inventory.

“I would also recommend that you have a catalogue of your names, your logos, any taglines things that you know the public uses to find you and your products and your services. You want to know what they are, you want to protect them by way of a trademark registration. I mean, a trademark registration really is a very inexpensive tool that packs a lot of punch in terms of enforcing your rights. But you know, don't just be mindful of your brand's names, logos and taglines, you also want to think about your content. And particularly the content that has a lot of value to your business. One thing that you know - if you're selling, if you have a particular process that you use with your clients, in order to, I don't know, create a financial plan, and it's something that's very unique to you, but also something that is easy to upload to the internet and share with the world, you want to make sure that you have the proper protections in place so that you can quickly and easily have anything taken down if you see it out there. You want to take your valuable content - stuff that you use to generate income – and register the copyright in it. A copyright registration is even less expensive than a trademark registration. And again, just having that registration number packs a lot of punch in terms of being able to take infringing copies off of the worldwide web. You really do need to have either a trademark or a copyright registration number in order to quickly have something taken down if it's infringing your rights.”

Listen in for more on the ins and outs of working with a podcast production team, how to protect your assets – your intellectual property, and why trademark registration that protects your brand online is so incredibly important.

I think you’ll enjoy it.

Also, I hope to see you at Double to Sell, this November, featuring the great Cameron Herold!

If you’re an entrepreneur looking to exit, or you’re at the helm of a thriving business or startup, I would love to talk with you about your stories! You can drop me a line here.

Plus, if you are craving like-minded conversation with growth-oriented business owners, consider joining me and eight other business owners, investors and entrepreneurs for our next two editions of Elevated Conversations are coming up in September – watch this space for more details!

“I’m a Millionaire. So Now What?” is brought to you by Double to Sell - Canada's Premier Invitation-ONLY workshop for business owners wanting a cash-rich exit in 10 years or less. For more information, or to register, please visit the “Double to Sell” website.