By Mary Juetten
If you’ve just opened a new business, this question perhaps hasn’t crossed your mind yet: Is IP part of your business’s foundation? In order to answer, you might wish to understand your intellectual property (IP) and how it factors into making any money. But before you do that, statistics tell us you probably aren’t paying enough attention to how important your IP is. Some small businesses do not fully comprehend the importance of what IP does for them and that is the crucial mistake they are making.
These statistics come from Small Business Trends presenting information gathered over the last four years. They point out that out of all major IP categories, most of them haven’t been protected enough through companies with less than 500 employees. Please keep in mind these were companies that deal with research and development where IP would be of central importance.
In the report from the National Science Foundation, we see concern toward smaller companies in how much financial potential they’re losing out on not paying attention to their IP. Some of the categories not being explored range from patents to trade secrets, with the latter being one of the most important (and unprotected or abused) areas of IP. (more…)
True or False? Upgrading to new technology is costly and takes too much time. Only big companies need to invest in data security protection. Employees are most productive only when working in the office. You may hold these misconceptions, or business myths, as truths. I want to encourage you to reconsider and not let them hold your small business back.
Everyone wants to show up on the first page of the 