Hello, ladies.
Welcome to the Hourly
to Exit podcast.
Today is LinkedIn Live Day.
I do LinkedIn lives every
last Wednesday of the month
at 12 noon Eastern, where
I answer your questions
about transforming your
expertise based business.
From unscalable, hourly,
one to one that is
scalable and hopefully
you can sell someday.
since today is a LinkedIn
live, I do have some slides,
but this topic is one
that you can live without
the slides if, you, are
listening on the podcast.
But you can check
out the slides on the
YouTube channel as well.
So today we are talking
about something that came
up during, I was a guest,
expert in a mastermind.
And of course I was
talking about contracts
and copyrights.
And of course someone
said, yeah, but what
about trademarks?
So, that has inspired
this conversation today.
it is entitled your
Copyrights or Your Trademarks,
which one do your clients
actually care about?
And uh, if you know me at all,
you probably know the answer,
but I'm gonna tell you why.
So let's talk
about copyrights.
Just really briefly,
just make sure we're
all on the same page.
copyrights are intellectual
property protection that
protects the original creative
works of authorship that are
an expression of an idea.
And what's important here?
Well, all the words here
are important actually.
Original, creative, and
expression of an idea.
So it has to be original.
It can't be something that
you took from somebody else.
You don't get copy up
protection for that.
It has to be creative.
So the example is the list of.
Phone numbers as if the
old phone book example,
which probably no one
knows what a phone book is.
And, then the
expression of an idea.
The ideas themselves
are not protected, by
intellectual property law.
You have to put it into
some tangible form.
The expression of the idea is
considered a tangible form.
The examples here are books,
presentations, research
reports, market analysis,
training materials, SOPs.
And so once you create
something with your idea.
So you put pen to paper
figures to keyboard,
brush to canvas.
once you create something
that's original, then It
is eligible for copyright
protection, and the beauty
of copyrights is that it
provides a legal monopoly
over your original creation.
So the monopoly that
you have is only you.
Have the exclusive right
to make copies of the
material, to distribute it,
to perform it like in the
case of a song or a movie, to
create derivatives from it.
to use your original
painting to make postcards
or t-shirts, or to give,
rights to third parties.
So anyone who wants to use
your copyrighted material
has to come to you to
get a license to use it.
so that is copyrights.
Now what about trademarks?
a trademark is a word,
phrase or symbol, or could
be a combination of them.
Even sounds can be,
trademarked, that identify the
source of a good or service.
And of course the more
unique the mark, such
as something that's kind
of made up like Google.
The stronger the
protection will be.
So examples, Google, company
names, logos, like the
golden arches of McDonald's,
or a branded offering.
many of you who are, experts
may have, a framework
that you've developed
that you have a trademark
in just the name of the.
Framework versus
your company name.
So it can be anything that,
identifies the source of
the good or the service.
And the purpose of a
trademark is to prevent
confusion, by consumers.
So if I see the Barbie
trademark, I know that
this is a Mattel company
product, or if I see the,
big Mac, I know that that
is a McDonald's product.
So that tells me the
origin of that product.
And the same would
apply to services.
Those are called service
marks, but it comes all under
the heading of trademarks.
So, When I am thinking
about which one.
Does the client
really care about?
So this is the one slide
that you might wanna check
out, which is copyrights
and trademarks side by side.
And so on the left I have,
copyrights reminder that
copyrights give you a legal
monopoly in your original
creation versus a trademark,
which is intended to prevent
confusion of the consumer.
So no confusion in
the marketplace.
what do your
clients care about?
Your clients care about the
value that you create for them
or that you provide to them.
They care about the
return on the investment.
They care about the results.
They care about the
transformation that they
get from working with you.
And so in kind of just.
Generalized terms, the
copyrights are client focused.
Copyrighted materials are
the workshops that you
deliver, the courses that
you create, the, trainings
that you deliver, the
books that you write.
Those are all copyrighted
materials, and those are all
the ways that you, deliver
value to your clients.
Versus trademarks, and I
generally refer to these as
being you focused because
they aren't about the value
that your client gets.
They're about protecting
you and your materials
from a third party
claiming to be you.
So let's say that you have
developed your workshops and
everyone loves your workshops.
They create this
amazing transformation.
your name is all
over the place.
Is this the person you
need to talk to to get
this type of, let's just
call 'em HR workshops.
And then once you have
developed these amazing
transformations for your
clients, then the trademark
becomes important to make sure
that some other consultant
doesn't pretend to be you.
And, say that I can deliver
that transformation to by
using a similar name, I
we're not even gonna go with
someone just stealing your
stuff, cuz there's always
gonna be someone who's
gonna steal your stuff.
But for someone who can
confuse the market by saying,
I have, Aaron's HR protocol
and let's just say you can get
that trademarked, excuse me.
And so someone couldn't come
along and have, Ellen's HR
protocol, which would be very
confusing to the marketplace.
They know it's something like
that begins with an e they
know the number of syllables
and all that good stuff,
and so they would think that
Ellen's HR protocol was.
The same as Aaron's
HR protocol.
So it's not that trademarks
aren't important, it's just
that they aren't what provides
value to your clients.
It's the transformation and
the results that provide
value to your clients,
and those come via your
copyrighted materials.
So since we know that
copyrights are the primary
value, and I say primary in
the context of an expertise
based business that serves
corporate clients, if you are,
franchising your methodology,
obviously the trademarks very
important, in order to get,
everyone knows that solution
comes from your materials,
out in the marketplace.
But when we're talking
about providing value to
our corporate clients, it
is our copyrighted materials
that provide that value.
And so in order to protect
that value, there are three
fundamental things that
you absolutely must do.
One, you need to create
original materials.
Remember that copyright
protects original creative
materials only, so if you.
Are using third party
materials, in order to
provide value to your
clients, yes, your clients
are getting the value.
let's say you have licensed,
some materials from a
training program that
you went through, and now
you're able to use those
materials for your clients.
for instance, I mean I was
just looking at the one page
business plan book I had.
One on my shelf for
ages and ages and it was
interesting conditioned cuz
I hadn't cracked it open.
And so I was going through it
and I could see that in there
you can become a certified one
page business plan consultant.
and they were talking about,
all of the testimonials about
how these consultants, made
X amount of sales once they
became a certified consultant
and started using the one page
program with their clients.
And that's great.
They absolutely have provided,
value to their clients.
They are not creating
their own assets.
They are not creating
their own copyright old
material that they can use
to control the distribution
of the derivatives of, and
license to other people.
So they're limited
to their use.
They don't have all the
other, upsides that come
from owning your own
copyrighted materials.
So create your own
original materials.
Secondly, you need to
register those that
are revenue generating.
If you're anything like
me, you're constantly
creating, materials.
You're writing
posts all the time.
You're recording
podcast, you're doing
stuff on LinkedIn.
being a guest expert inside
of someone's mastermind.
You're creating deliverables
for your clients.
you're having.
Someone on Fiverr
create, logo for you.
All the ways that copyrighted
materials are in and about
our businesses, but we don't
register all of those in
the US Copyright Office.
It's not rocket science to
do it, but there is really no
reason to register something
that you wouldn't enforce.
In a court of law, frankly,
I mean, this is my opinion,
some people might choose
to, register absolutely
everything, and it could
depend on, how valuable you
consider your non-revenue
generating materials.
Like, for instance, let's
say you have a book that
you're literally giving away.
Say it's a white paper, you're
literally giving it away.
And so it is not directly
generating revenue, but it is
a very important lead magnet.
It's part of your authority.
that is that even though
you're not selling it, that
you would consider registering
it with a copyright office.
So the second one is
register your revenue
generating materials in
the US Copyright office.
And last but definitely not
least, you wanna make sure you
are using and understanding
written agreements.
These are gonna be the
agreements that you
enter with your clients.
And if you don't have your
own template, one, you
should, but in any case, when
you have corporate clients,
Oftentimes they will require
you to sign their agreements.
You need to make sure you
understand them because
those agreements will
determine who owns what
rights in the deliverables.
So make sure those
are understood.
And then also when you
are the client, when you
are using subcontractors,
maybe you're having someone
create materials for your
business, or maybe you're
having someone come in and
help you service your client.
in those circumstances, you
should also be using and
understanding the agreements.
it's very important
again, to determine the
ownership and use of the
copyrighted materials that
are developed in connection
with those engagements
and protect you, from.
reuse of your materials,
and that applies both to
your client agreements and
your subcontract agreements.
Especially if, say you
are using facilitators to
deliver your workshops, you
wanna make sure that you
have protections in them
so that your copyrighted
materials are not being.
Use without you, that
derivatives aren't
being created without
your permission.
so those are all important
elements of your agreements
that involve copyrights.
So copyright protection
is more than copyright
registration.
You also need to make
sure that you have the
right agreements in place
to make sure that you
control those materials.
in some.
First is the value.
The value comes from
your copyright materials.
Make sure you're putting
your resources to creating
value for your clients in
the form of your copyright
materials, your trainings,
your courses, your workshops,
the deliverables, then.
The branding, which
is the trademarks.
Not that it's unimportant,
but we need to make sure
that we're putting the
right resources in the
right place, emphasizing the
value that we're creating
for our clients, and then
also, creating our brand.
And that would be in
the form of trademarks.
hopefully this was,
helpful to you.
If you have any questions,
you know where to find me.
You can either find
me@thinkbeyondip.com.
You can find me at LinkedIn.
I am the original
Aaron Austin.
Or of course, always
on YouTube as well.
So look forward to
hearing from you.
I'm always happy to
answer your questions.
Most of these LinkedIn lives
are from your questions, so
please feel free to reach
out until I see you again.
Cheers.