The Traklight Blog

The early days of a business are a hectic time for any entrepreneur. Almost all of your time and energy is spent trying to get your business off the ground, often by yourself. Your worries tend towards the basics of keeping the lights on as well as figuring out how to grow. But as your business starts to develop and move beyond these early stages, you will start to run into new challenges and new areas of concern. As new opportunities present themselves, so will new risks that need to be mitigated. Taking the proper precautions to address that risk can help you feel secure in the future of your company while you continue to grow.

The birth of a company and the idea that fuels it can come at any time. If entrepreneurs waited until the conditions were ideal to start a business, many of the brands that we've come to know and rely on may never have gotten off the ground. Often early-stage businesses are run on shoestring budgets, trying to stretch every dollar as far as it can go.

This post was originally featured on Above the Law.

So many people have unique creative ideas, but a lot of those ideas never come to fruition. Part of that is due to the fleeting nature of inspiration, and people simply throwing out ideas without any serious thought to trying to make more of them. But a number of people are held up from capitalizing on their ideas because they don't know how to and don't understand what rights they may or may not hold to any idea or work. Too many people fail to bring these terrific ideas to fruition, and those who do are often at a loss as to how to combat having their work misappropriated by others. Understanding the basics of intellectual property protection is the foundation for artists and creators to receive the credit and compensation they are owed.

This is a guest post from Christy Burke of Burke & Company, originally featured on Legal IT Insider.

Young artists are always looking for opportunities, and are often willing to make sacrifices and compromises in their search for a break. And for many, a lack of expertise can lead to mistakes that deprive them of a full share of any profits derived from their work. While some businesses are dealing in good faith with artists, there are others that are seemingly willing to take advantage of young, inexperienced creators without the power to demand a better, more equitable deal.

Intellectual property serves as the backbone of any business, and as such, it needs to be protected and managed to increase your company’s valuation and keep your business’ future secure. Here is the second part in our series of tips on maximizing IP value for your business.

Intellectual property (IP) represents a tremendous source of value for businesses that can either go entirely wasted or prove a goldmine if properly managed. Unfortunately, too many small businesses fail to create an IP strategy to take advantage of this value. Many startups will choose to forego IP protection, believing that their scarce dollars are better spent elsewhere on areas that might seem to more directly impact growth and revenue. But this position fails to understand that intangible assets like IP are equally important to anything else within your business. Having a sound IP strategy is crucial to long-term success in any industry.

This article was written by Stephanie Francis Ward and was originally featured on ABA Journal.

What will be a big legal trend for 2018? Mary E. Juetten is putting her hopes on legal technology improving access-to-justice problems.

Our first event of 2018 was the Darwin Challenge: Defending Technology Adoption,  hosted by Evolve Law and Above the Law and sponsored Wolters Kluwer, Integra Ledger, and VortexLegal. The Darwin Challenge provided a new twist on our old Darwin Talk format - instead of merely presenting their ideas, presenters would have to answer questions on their suggested pitch for legal tech.   Our challenge was moderated by Elie Mystal, Executive Editor of Above the Law, and innovators were made to defend their arguments to our expert panel, featuring Above the Law Tech Editor Joe Patrice, Wolters Kluwer VP Legal Markets, Innovation Dean Sonderegger, and Davis Wright Tremaine DeNovo Team Surge Specialist Ginni Chen.

Our internet culture hurtles ever forward, bringing our global conversations forward while simultaneously leaving more of us beyond a certain age behind. I'm talking, of course, about memes. Internet memes have become the common language that we never knew we needed, and perhaps didn't want. Nevertheless, it is upon us, and people from around the world have singular images to serve as touchstones in communicating with others on the other side of the globe, relaying an idea through a single image that has a collectively understood context.

Too often, startups make mistakes with their company’s intellectual property (IP) that could have been easily avoided. You can read the first part of the series here.

Intellectual property (IP) is having its moment in the sun, but often not for the best of reasons. For every story heralding the importance of IP in business, there are multitudes more indirectly doing the same thing when discussing the latest lawsuits over copyright or patent infringement or co-founder feuds over who holds the right to their creations. Too many startups make early-stage mistakes regarding their IP that can at best hinder and at worst sink their burgeoning businesses, often due to nothing more than oversight or ignorance on the subject. Here are some of the top mistakes made by startups.

Do you know how to prevent your ideas from being stolen? If you have an idea lying around that is easily accessible, you risk losing it. It’s vital that your company take action and create an intellectual property (IP) strategy in order to be successful. Getting the necessary protection for your ideas is the most important step you can take to help ensure its future. But what types of protection can you get for these ideas?

For music listeners, Spotify has become almost ubiquitous. The service offers users access to a vast catalog of songs on demand and at their fingertips. And fans of music and podcasts are overwhelmingly taking advantage of the easy-to-use service — a recent story puts their subscriber base at 7o million users. But if the streaming era of media has taught us anything, it is that digital rights can prove problematic in the relationship between artist and platform, and music has proven no exception.

Small businesses face a number of challenges as they try to grow. Being a small company means have to approach things differently than larger companies in your field. And while a lack of assets can be a hindrance, it can also offer flexibility. Bigger businesses may have the money and workforce, but they can also fall victim to an entrenched mindset that can prevent new and innovative thinking. Here are some ways that small businesses can succeed at winning an unfair game.

The new year is an opportunity for a fresh start, both personally and professionally. The turning over of the calendar is as good an opportunity as any to try and ditch poor habits and implement positive ones. For many of us, that means trying to get organized. With as much as life throws at us, it's easy to let things fall as they may as we try to stay sane over the course of a calendar year. But with some good habits maintained over time, it's possible for both you and your business to get and stay organized.

The holiday season offers a chance for reflection and thought, not only on months and years past, but our current positions and where we see ourselves in the near future. For business owners, the process of assessing the past, present and future is necessary for planning your next steps. But mistakes made in the past can have serious implications for the future.

Each year, companies lose billions of dollars to intellectual property (IP) theft. Particularly, small businesses that are still in their early stage seem to be the most vulnerable. This is because small business owners are widely known for their reluctance to allocate part of their annual budget to the protection of their ideas. But protecting your IP doesn't have to be a budget-busting proposition. There are simple, reasonable steps that can be taken to keep your work safe, as well as your budget

This article was originally featured on Above the Law.