The New York Times had a great article in last week’s small business section, called “A Small Business Guide to Intellectual Property.” The article explores five common fallacies about intellectual property:
1. For small-business owners, it’s not worth the time or effort to secure intellectual property rights. Wrong.
2. Once I get a trademark, my brand is safe. Nope.
3. Having a patent gives me the right to produce something. Nope. It gives you the right to exclude.
4. If I have a patent or trademark in the United States, I don’t need to worry about the rest of the world. Depends on where you sell your products.
5. People who collect patents but don’t actually make anything are “patent trolls,” parasites who can make money only by filing lawsuits against real businesses. Not really, they can also be “innovation factories.”
I’d recommend reading the entire article.