Incorporated.
This is the process of getting your business ready to play in The big league. Incorporating can be done on your own but I would recommend getting a lawyer to fill out the paperwork and do the filing. I will warn you that this is not cheap. The upfront cost could be around $1500.00 depending on where you live. Incorporating will be one of the first steps needed on your path to becoming a publicly traded company. Incorporating will set up a share structure and other stuff that will be needed down the road. If you are thinking of incorporating early on in business go see a lawyer and gather as much free advice as needed to make your decision as to incorporate now or wait till a later date.
Copyright
Copyright is really fairly simple. When you write something like a book, some music lyrics or anything like it. If you are the person who first wrote it and can prove it you hold the copyright. To make sure you have the copyright I would keep the work secret and hidden until, such a time as you are ready to make it public. When ready post it somewhere that can add a date stamp. You could post your work on Facebook or some social media platform or email it to yourself and save it. Place a note on the work saying authored by: “your name” and the current date. Be sure to at least email, it to yourself to prove that the work was done on a certain date.
Trademark
A trademark is a little bit different than a copyright in that a trademark is usually a word or set of words that refers to your product or company. If a word is not already trademarked you can just add the “TM” symbol to the end of it to tell everyone that this is your mark. Before adding the “TM” mark you should first search for it online, to see that it’s not already taken. Start by doing a google search, then search the USPTO. ( the United States Patent and Trademark office ) if the work, word or symbol seems to have nothing close to it already taken then feel free to add the symbol.
Registered
To register a trademark is much more difficult and time-consuming than just placing a tm at the end of your word. The symbol r with a circle around it refers to a word or mark being registered with the government. The process of getting your registration can take years to accomplish and can cost a pile of money. Here I recommend staying well away from any other trademarks that could be close to yours. If you manage to get a registered trademark give yourself a big pat on the back for a job well done. Having a trademark that is registered says you are serious about the company you are building and the trademark will add value to the overall worth of your company.
Patented and patent pending.
This is again different. So, patent pending is a way of saying I’ve designed something unique and I want to protect it. Patent pending is protection for your design or design idea, and as soon as you have filed your patent pending you are in theory protected.
Here I must warn you that their is a group of people who are referred to as patent trolls. These people look for new ideas that have been protected and try to find ways around a patent in order to implement a patent of their own and do their best to steal your idea. Be very careful what you let out of your head because you never know who is listening or watching.
With Patent pending, you do not need to prove that your idea or concept works. Patent pending will protect your idea for one year at which point you can extend the protection of or move ahead with going for a patent.
Patenting
As of today I have not yet tried to patent anything but do know this. There are some very big companies that buy smaller companies for a huge amount of money just to get their patents. This is well worth thinking about if you want to get really really rich.
I’m not going to say that I know all that there is to know about these words and have done this just as a tease to get you to look deeper into each one of these words as knowing will help you to better understand how to succeed in your business venture.
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