Would you stand by and allow someone to walk up to your front porch, unscrew your front door and walk away with it?
Of course you wouldn’t!
Well, picture someone walking onto your digital real estate – your online brand – and stealing and using to their advantage whatever they like.
The two things are exactly the same.
It’s 2020.
Surreal as it feels, in today’s digital world many businesspeople and entrepreneurs have created assets that are worth just as much, even though aren’t made from actual bricks and mortar.
And they need to be protected just as comprehensively as a house.
Ugh, But Lawyers are a PAIN! And so expensive.
Right.
On both counts.
Just like doctors and financial advisors, and marketers.
But that DOES not mean we are not accessible.
Here’s my take.
Us lawyers are good for somethigs. One! We understand how persnickety the law can be. And yet, the concept of “the law” in legal theory and practice, civil and common, has been around and evolving for thousands of years.
Why?
Because the law is designed to protect you when you need protecting.
But let’s be real. The best kind of legal advice, is no need for legal advice, yes? So how do we get to “no need for legal advice?”
You get there by being proactive rather than reactive.
[testimonial_single id=”710″]
Let’s go back to the house example. Did you know that your home could be stolen right out from under you?
It’s true. In Canada, real estate or title fraud happens on average about twice a week, and mortgage fraud losses recently topped $100 million.
These Fraud Cases are on the Rise
Fraud cases (including identity theft and identity fraud) have increased hand over fist for the past seven years, with a 12% increase between 2017 and 2018. That’s a 46% increase over the rate reported a decade earlier in 2008.
For those of us with our toes in the digital world, those stats aren’t surprising. The more slick and more sophisticated technology has become over the past couple of decades, the more slick and sophisticated the thievery.
And if the protections in place barely cover bricks and mortar, what chance does nebulous, ephemeral intellectual property (that you can barely believe pays for a roof over your head) have?
Well, trust in your ideas.
As big as that sounds, I’m a lawyer, and have been trained not to make false promises.
Intellectual property CAN be protected.
You just need to take the right steps.
It is my goal to hand out as much free legal advice as I can on the value of protecting your brain.
The next instalment of talking out the value of your brilliance and putting some protections on it comes soon.
–Cynthia
Get Started
If you’d like to explore how you can register that idea/name/logo that’s been on your mind for a while, go here and start from under $500, including government fees, depending on the number of categories you need.