At the end of this session, tally up the number of good things and bad things, and share them with the team. ‘This week,

Without IP, you will not make money. Bigger companies with lower costs and worse ethics will happily steal your customers and your sales. And if you don’t enforce that IP, it will become worthless. Those who copy your products can argue that you knew that they were copying and did nothing about it and that you are therefore not entitled to compensation.,Have that discussion. Ideally, you’ll come away with one change all team members can agree and commit to . . . for one week only. Why one week? Because (a) you don’t know if your improvement will work, and (b) virtually everyone can commit to one week.,If you can solve your problem without a lawsuit, do it. Lawsuits are expensive, stressful, and time consuming. My company has many times spent $30,000 in legal bills to recover $20,000 from a copycat.,If you succeed in registering any of the above intellectual property (IP), you will have the right to report it as infringing to e-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon (which may take it down), and you will be entitled to damages from your copycats for sales which occurred after the registration. If a court finds that the copying was intentional, they may triple your damages award.,Business is not for the faint of heart. We’ve had current and former employees and suppliers copy our products. We’ve had chain retailers request free samples only to later roll out with a knockoff under their own brand. We have had multiple companies, copy us, get sued, settle, and then, believe it or not, do it again. We’ve received Better Business Bureau complaints for other companies’ products because consumers are confused. I spend about 25% of my time on legal disputes, instead of building new products or improving our operations. That is the price of admission to the world of physical products.,Patents. There are two types of patents, utility patents and design patents. Utility patents are granted for functional designs, i.e. a new fork which makes it easier to eat spaghetti. Design patents are granted for superficial designs, i.e. a new fork which has stars embedded on the handle. Utility patents cost around $6,000 including legal fees and drawings. Design patents are around $1,500 all-in. Since utility patents are expensive, before paying for attorney, file a provisional patent application yourself ($150) before revealing your product. That will give you 12 months to explore whether or not your product is viable. If it is, get an attorney before the 12 months expire.,Let’s look at the above example. We trademarked the brand name Goodminton®. It registered so it gets a cool little ® after the brand. We laid claim to the slogan “The World’s Easiest Racquet Game” by writing ™ at the end of it. We can register this trademark later. We could apply for a utility patent on the special rotate-as-they-spin birdies. We could apply for a design patent for the shape of our paddles. Finally, we could copyright the image you see above or even the text we use to describe the product.,Copyrights. In the physical product world, you can file a copyright for advertising copy, your packaging art, or even your e-commerce photos. They cost $65 to file with the US Copyright Office and you do not need an attorney to do it. Be sure to read a few how-to’s before attempting it yourself though.,No matter how great of a job you do protecting your product, if it’s successful in the market, people are going to copy you. Sometimes they will design around your IP, oftentimes they won’t. Unfortunately, there is no one-size fits all strategy for pursuing your copycats. It depends on where they’re based, where you’re based, how they copied you and so on, but I can still give you some general tips:,Autocomplete, or word completion, is a feature in which an application predicts the rest of a word a user is typing. In Android smartphones, this is called predictive text. In graphical user interfaces, users can typically press the tab key to accept a suggestion or the down arrow key to accept one of several.,If you need a lawyer and to file a lawsuit, try to get one on contingency. Contingency means that, instead of earning money by the hour, the attorney gets a portion of the money you recover. They’ll care more and your incentives will be better aligned.,I know I should be appalled by the Ring Always Home Cam. But I just really want to buy one. If you feel the same way, consider preordering one for your friend or family member, brushing up on your piloting skills, and remotely snooping in their closets as early as spring of 2021, when the drone is likely to come to market.,Note that in the above fee estimates, I gave you total prices. You do not need to pay your attorneys hourly. I recommend against it. Have them quote you a guaranteed maximum price.,If you can solve your problem without a lawyer, do it. If you’re worried about putting your foot in your mouth, have a lawyer advise you, but it’s not necessary that they draft and deliver a cease and desist. You can do it, too. One of the best ways to resolve a legal dispute is via a phone call with the other side’s decision maker with the lawyers out of the room. Keep your cool and give it a try.,The plank is one of the most practiced core exercises around the globe. Step outside of fitness circles and the majority of people are familiar with this infamous pose. Being an isometric hold, the plank is a potent mix between exertion and patience. If you think this is a simple and mindless exercise, however, you’re gravely mistaken. As a personal trainer, it’s quite rare to see this pose being executed 100% correctly.