Useful Resource For Protecting Your Intellectual Property

For small business owners who deal with complex issues each day, protecting intellectual property (IP) can easily be forgotten. Yet names and logos are stolen every day. A new white paper from BizFilings, "Naming Your Company, Products, and Slogans: Clearing and Protecting Your Trademark Rights," provides useful advice on IP protection.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce for Intellectual Property, piracy, counterfeiting and the theft of IP pose a serious threat to all U.S. businesses. Industry experts estimate that the cost of these thefts can be as high as $250 billion per year. I've been there and it's no fun. You can read my short story -- It's Not OK To Steal.

"Trademark laws impact virtually every business in the United States," BizFilings Marketing Director Troy Janisch said. "Small businesses can be especially vulnerable simply because of the lack of financial and legal resources when compared with large corporations."

"Whether you're a small, one-person business or a multi-national firm, securing your intellectual property is as important as a patent is to an inventor or a copyright to an author," Janisch said. "A business of any size should consider protecting its name and logo as a registered trademark or service mark to avoid the risk of litigation."

Specifically, the new white paper addresses:

-Why, when and how to use trademarks or service marks to protect your IP
-What you can trademark and how
-Benefits of a registered mark vs. a common-law mark
-Whether to register at the federal or state level
-Timesaving solutions when beginning the trademark process.

The white paper is available for download at: http://www.bizfilings.com/whitepapers.