Do You Own What You Think You Own?
Do You Own What You Think You Own? Knowing the answer to this question is fundamental, whether you want to scale now or seed the ground to someday sell your expertise-based business.
To the surprise of no one, the first step to achieve your goals is packaging your expertise into intellectual property assets. To grow more profitably and sustainably, you must use the leverage of intellectual property to decouple your income from your time.
Leverage allows you to increase your income and your impact by creating new offers that appeal to a broader audience. And that’s good, right?
Here’s the thing. Increased visibility means increased scrutiny. Growing your business with an intellectual property strategy is like adding another floor to your house. The foundation that was good enough for your first floor may not be strong enough to hold your second floor. The legal foundation for your internal uses of IP may not hold up when your use becomes public facing.
When we use IP to add a second floor, a sampling of foundation cracks that may appear:
Contractors. Do you have a written agreement for every deliverable received from a contractor that is part of your methodology? Even if you paid the contractor and the contractor used your ideas to create the deliverable, you must have a written agreement, including specific language regarding ownership, to own exclusive rights in the deliverable.
Employers. Did you take some of your former employer’s know-how with you when you set up shop? Of course, we own the knowledge and experience gained during employment, but we don’t own their proprietary information or products.
Employees. Same for your employees. Did they bring any proprietary information from their prior employer to your company?
Clients. If you are regularly signing the services agreements provided by your clients, the agreements will contain ownership language regarding the deliverables. Are you retaining rights in your pre-existing property? Non-competes are another danger—are you restricted from offering similar services to your client’s competitors?
Third-Party Materials. Is your methodology 100% original to you? If you use materials licensed from a third party, such as a certification program or other training, there will be restrictions on how you can use them in your new IP strategy.
So, do you own what you think you own?