Protect the value of your intellectual property
10 Aug 2022
Most creatives are in the idea business and our currency is often naivety in our own worth. We tend to think we can’t possibly be the first person to come up with an original thought, recipe, tattoo, line of code, slogan, illustration or music hook. Surely it’s all been done before; this can’t be worth much; no one will notice my work anyhow. And so if I put it out there, what could possibly go wrong?
A lot. Companies employ entire fleets of marketers and lawyers to constantly search for ways in which your ideas, whether intentional or not, collide with theirs.
Case in point. The Seattle Space Needle recently sued a local small coffee chain for using the needle’s trademarked logo in its coffee shop branding and merchandising. The Local Coffee Shop features a mug of hot coffee whose rising steam bears resemblance to the iconic tower’s own logo used on branded merchandise.
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