Every business owner (and if you’re an author, professional speaker, seminar leader, or radio/podcast host, you own a business) wants to boost the value of their business as much as possible. One way to do that is through intellectual property: trademarks and patents. We all know that patents are the gold of inventors, but none of us invented the book or the radio, so there’s little room in the world of patents for us. Trademarks are a different story, though.
If you’re writing a series of books or booklets, conducting a series of workshops, or recording a series of audios, you’re in particularly good shape to create a memorable name for the series. The next step is to protect that name and trademark it.
Think of Chicken Soup for the Soul and For Dummies. Those trademarks are worth millions in and of themselves. Those writing projects may have started out as single-book visions, but they quickly evolved into full-fledged businesses producing a series of successful books. And their creators knew how to protect themselves.
Now is the time to think of how you might protect the important work you’re doing. Do you have plans yet for more than one book, workshop, or audio? You should. Come up with a catchy name, then check to be sure it’s available for your use by searching on the Patent & Trademark Office website.
The majority of the trademark process can be handled yourself, but I recommend consulting an intellectual property attorney in the beginning. Discuss whether the standard ‘classes’ of trademarks will work for you or if customizing the description of the kinds of goods (or services) you’ll be producing will protect you better. Once that has been decided, you can take care of the registration process yourself and save thousands of dollars.
This week is a great time to learn the ins and outs of trademark applications because the Trademark Office is slow. I got a live, knowledgeable person at the PTO on the phone inside of a minute yesterday and cleared up my questions about submitting my ‘specimens’ to finalize my trademarks. So, even if you don’t have an attorney yet, go ahead and take advantage of this slow week at the PTO to get all your questions answered so you can charge ahead with confidence in the new year, building value into your business.
