Protecting Your Ideas
I have lots of ideas. Some I even refer to as Big Ideas. 🧠
As an expert, you have lots of ideas too, both big and small.
Is it possible to protect your ideas?
I. Copyright
Copyright does not protect ideas. Copyright protects the way you express your ideas in tangible form (e.g., book, article, course, graphic, photo). Copyright does not protect the idea itself even as it is contained in your written or artistic work.
For example, my big idea is that IP is Everywhere. As experts, we create IP, use IP, and deliver IP, all day, every day. Every time we use our intellect—IP. The question isn’t whether you are ready to add IP to your business; the question is whether you own and control the IP that is already swirling around your business so you can make it work for you by creating leverageable assets.
Can I copyright my big idea? Nope. Can I write a book about my big idea and copyright the book? Yep.
But I cannot prevent anyone from using my big idea to write their own book or create their own services.
II. Confidential Information
Can I protect my big idea as confidential information?
Sure, but that means I have to keep my big idea a secret and share it on a need-to-know basis only. My big idea is the solar system around which I create content. Without my big idea, I’m just another lawyer waiting for the phone to ring.
It is through sharing our big ideas that they create value.
III. Trademark
For the sake of argument, let’s say that “IP is Everywhere” is eligible for trademark protection. To that I say, "So what?" Even if I could stop other people from calling their business or service “IP is Everywhere”, that would not prevent them in any way from talking about, writing about, or creating products and services that help experts own and control their IP and create leverageable assets. The big idea–the thing that makes you think about your business in a new light—cannot be protected. (FTR, this is why I think the value of trademarks for B2B experts is way overrated, bordering on boring. If you have corporate clients, they really do not care about your trademark. 🙄)
So if you can’t protect your big idea, how do you profit from it?
Use contracts strategically. Make sure your contracts support your revenue goals, which means owning and controlling the intellectual property rights in your expertise. It is your contracts that will determine whether you own what you need to own. Remember - You can’t copyright what you don’t own.
Put your idea in tangible form by creating original works that meet copyright law requirements. Create copyrightable assets that can be used internally for more profitable delivery of services or be sold or licensed externally to generate revenue that is decoupled from your time.
Be the chef. Yes, write the cookbook and register it with the US Copyright Office. But protect your big idea by becoming the go-to person in your niche. Anyone can cook using your recipes, but only you can provide the Michelin star experience.
Wondering whether your expertise is copyrightable? Take the Quiz and find out.