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10 questions before you help a community learn about IP
Ten questions to answer before you run an IP session for a community, and what to do about each one: roles, goals, privacy, plain language, community knowledge and referrals.
Helping people see their own work differently
Start with what people make and what they want to happen with it; the IP questions follow from there.
A practical IP workshop in an hour
A minute-by-minute plan for a one-hour IP session built on one ten-question article and one fictional example, ending with each person choosing what to read next.
Making IP learning accessible across language and experience
Explain the situation before the term, use examples people already know, and give everyone more than one way to read, hear and take part.
Helping someone find the right kind of support
Find out what the person needs answered, match it to the kind of help that answers it, check the provider is allowed to do the work, and leave the choice with them.
Making an introduction with the person’s permission
Ask before you introduce, share only what the person approves, and leave them in control of their story.
How to tell whether an IP workshop helped
Judge the session by what became clearer for participants, not by attendance or applause, and use what you learn to change the next one.
Community knowledge and the limits of individual ownership
When a design, song or story belongs to a community’s tradition, one person’s permission is rarely enough. Find out who decides, agree the terms in writing, and know what IP law can and cannot protect.
10 questions when you think someone copied your work
Ten questions to answer before you act on a copy of your work, what U.S. law says about each, and the next step to take.
10 questions when someone says you infringed their rights
A complaint is someone's position, not a verdict. Ten assumptions people make when accused of copyright or trademark infringement, and what to do instead.
You found your work somewhere unexpected
Before you send a takedown or an angry email, find out how your work got there: trace the licenses and transfers, confirm who owns which right, check your registration and the dates, then choose the smallest response that gets you the result you want.
Saving evidence while the facts are still available
Capture the whole page before it changes, keep the originals untouched, save the permission history and every message, and label it all so a stranger can follow the story, including the parts that do not help you.
When two things look alike
Looking alike is a clue, not a verdict. Split the comparison by right: copyright asks what expression was taken, trademark asks whether customers are likely to be confused, and a patent asks whether the product falls within the claims.
What would a good resolution look like
Decide what result you want (removal, credit, payment, a license or a decision) before you choose a step, because each step can deliver only some of them.
How platform reports and takedowns work
Pick the report that matches the problem, know what you swear to when you send a copyright takedown, and know what can happen next: a claim, a strike, a retraction or a counter-notice.
Responding to a platform complaint or counter-notice
Find out which kind of complaint you received, check what you actually published, pick the response that fits your facts, and know what a counter-notice commits you to before you sign it.
Reading a demand letter without assuming it is a verdict
A demand letter is the sender's claim, not a ruling. Check who sent it, what it asserts and whether any deadline is real before you reply, pay or sign.
Finding help when defending yourself feels unaffordable
You rarely need someone to run the whole dispute on day one. Find your deadline, name the one question you need answered, and take it to a free or limited-scope service that covers your kind of claim.
Small claims and mediation for an IP dispute
The Copyright Claims Board decides a copyright claim and can award up to $30,000; a mediator decides nothing and helps you reach a deal. Check who can use each, what it can decide, and the deadlines before you choose.
Fake accounts and counterfeit goods and domain disputes
A fake account, a fake product and a look-alike domain each have their own route: an impersonation report, a trademark or counterfeit report, and the UDRP. Name each problem, save the evidence, then use the matching route.
10 questions about the IP you already have
Ten questions to find out what your IP portfolio holds, who owns it, which dates are coming, and who should see what.
Starting an IP inventory you will actually use
Build a six-column inventory of the work, permissions and agreements behind one project, link the proof, and keep secrets out of it.
Following the ownership trail
Trace who owns each piece of a project, and what was signed along the way, before you promise anyone a licence.
Keeping dates and obligations from slipping
Give every IP date a verified source, an earlier working date, one named person and a follow-up check, so a reminder that never arrives does not cost you a registration or a patent.
Showing your portfolio to the right person
Show each person the work and rights facts their decision needs, and hold confidential detail back until there is an agreement to protect it.
Updating names and ownership in official records
A move, a new name and a transfer of rights each take a different filing. Work out which one you have, file it in the right place, then check the record changed.
An annual check on the work you still care about
Once a year, compare what you make with what you have recorded, decide which rights are worth their next fee, and give every open item a name and a date.
Looking after the records behind your rights
Name your files, keep the originals, store copies in two places, and leave a one-page index so anyone can find the agreement, the file, and the approval.
10 questions to ask yourself about intellectual property
You probably already own intellectual property, and some of it is protected the moment you make it. Ten questions to find out what you have.
The intellectual property you made before breakfast
The photo, the newsletter paragraph and the script you wrote this morning can already be protected by copyright. Here is how to tell, and who owns them.
You may already have copyright
In the U.S., copyright starts the moment you save, write down or record original work. No form creates it. Registration is a separate step that decides whether you can sue and what you can recover.
One project can contain several kinds of IP
Take one real project apart and you find copyright, a trademark, possible patents and a trade secret, each with its own next step.
Owning a thing and owning its rights
A book, a photograph, a source file, and the rights behind them can have different owners.
Does your protection travel across borders
Copyright reaches most countries automatically. Patents and trademarks you secure country by country, or through the PCT and Madrid systems.
What happens to a good idea before it becomes IP
The law does not protect a bare idea. It protects what you write or draw, an invention you file on, and information you keep secret. Work out which one you have before you share it.
What a timestamp can and cannot prove
A timestamp shows that a file existed by a certain time. It does not show who made it, who owns it, or that you registered anything. Here is what to keep alongside it, and when to register.
Learning about IP with your own AI
Give an AI the Learn map and your question, ask it for two or three articles with reasons, and check what it tells you against the sources.
Your first conversation with an IP professional
Check the person on the official register, bring a short account of what happened and the key documents, and leave with a written next step.
IP terms in everyday language
Plain definitions of copyright, trademark, patent, design, trade secret, license, assignment and the other words that decide who can do what.
Finding reliable IP information in your country
Start at your national or regional IP office, read the law itself in WIPO Lex, and check that every page you rely on covers your country, your right and the current version.
Recognizing an IP promise that needs a closer look
An official-looking fee notice or a promise that sounds too simple: how to check what you are being sold and who is really asking before you pay, and where to report it if you already have.
10 questions before you try to earn from or share your IP
Before you license, sell or give away your work, check the assumptions you are bringing to the deal. Ten questions, with direct answers.
What do you want your work to do for you?
Decide what you want a piece of work to do for you before you weigh any offer: then choose to use it yourself, license it, sell it or share it openly.
Licensing your work and selling your rights
You can give someone room to use your work without treating every arrangement as an outright sale.
The terms that decide how a deal will feel later
The clause that matters most may be the one that answers an ordinary question about next year.
Following the money in a royalty deal
Compare royalty offers by following one sale through each contract to the money that reaches you, not by comparing the percentages.
What might your IP be worth
A valuation is only as good as its reasoning. Pin down what is being valued, by which method, and for what decision before you trust or quote a number.
Sharing your work openly on purpose
A free download does not tell anyone what they may do with your work. Pick the Creative Commons license that matches the uses you want, license only what you control, and mark it so the permission travels with the work.
The work after a deal is signed
Turn a signed license into a routine: a one-page summary, both sides' duties on a list, statements checked on arrival, every change in writing, and dated reminders for renewal and ending.
What happens to IP when a business is sold or someone dies
Hand over the rights, the paperwork and the promises, not just the files: find who owns each right, list every license, sign the transfer and record it.
Can IP help you get financing
IP can back a loan or support an investment, but a lender lends against what it could recover, not against what the IP is worth to you.
10 questions before you try to protect your work
Ten common beliefs about protecting creative work, brands and inventions, what U.S. law actually says about each, and the next step to take.
Before you publish or launch
A launch releases several things at once: a name, a logo, photographs, a product design. Sort each one by who made it and which right covers it, then make the few decisions that cannot be undone after launch day.
Your first U.S. copyright application
Pick the right application, name the right author and claimant, send the right deposit, and get everything in on time to keep statutory damages and attorney's fees available.
Choosing a name you can grow with
Pick a name customers remember, that you can actually protect, and that nobody else is already using for related goods. Here is how to test it before you print anything.
From trademark search to U.S. application
You have searched and picked a name. Now name the right owner, describe your goods precisely, pick the filing basis that matches the facts, file in Trademark Center, and answer every USPTO deadline until registration.
Keeping a U.S. trademark registration alive
A U.S. trademark registration survives only if you file use declarations and renewals on time, and keep the goods, specimens and owner details true. Here is the calendar and what to file.
Before you show an invention to the world
A demo, a talk, a video or a sale can decide whether you can still patent an invention, especially outside the U.S. Decide what each audience will learn, and file first when it matters.
Finding your way through the patent process
Search first, choose utility or design, use a provisional only if it describes the whole invention, then track every deadline from filing to maintenance fees and foreign filing.
When the shape of a product matters
How a product looks can be protected separately from how it works. Name the visual feature you care about, then match it to the right tool: a design patent, copyright in separable artwork, or trade dress.
Keeping valuable know-how a secret
A trade secret lasts only while the information is valuable because it is secret and you take reasonable measures to keep it that way. List what matters, limit who sees it, put every sharing arrangement in writing, and know what secrecy cannot stop.
Who owns work made by employees and freelancers
Paying for work does not make you its owner. An employee's work belongs to the employer; a freelancer's work stays with the freelancer until a signed agreement says otherwise. Settle it in writing before the work starts.
Creating something with a cofounder or collaborator
Before you build something together, list who made what, put every transfer in a signed writing, and agree how licensing, income and departures will work. Settle it while you are still excited, not when one of you wants out.
The different rights inside a song
Every recorded song holds two copyrights: the composition and the sound recording. They are often owned, registered, licensed and paid separately, so always say which one you mean and who controls each.
Photographs and films can involve more than copyright
One photograph can carry three sets of rights: the photographer's copyright, the depicted person's say over advertising use of their likeness, and the rights in whatever else is in the frame. Sort each one before the image goes into a campaign.
The software you write and the software you borrow
Your app is your code plus other people's code, fonts and images, each with its own owner and license. Record what you use, keep the notices, check copyleft before you ship or host, and register the code you own.
When your product is a dataset
The facts in your dataset are free for anyone to use. What you can protect is your original writing and photos, a creative selection and arrangement, your contracts and, in the EU, your investment. Sort them, register what qualifies, and sell only what you control.
Research and inventions made at a university
Who owns a lab invention is decided by your university's IP policy, the agreement you signed when you joined, and the terms of the grant or sponsor. Disclose it to the technology-transfer office before you publish, and bring the facts with you.
Credit and the rights that stay with a creator
Getting paid, or selling the copyright, does not settle whether you are credited or whether your work can be changed. Know which moral rights your country gives you, and write the credit you want into the contract.
10 questions before you use someone else’s work
Ten questions to answer before you reuse an image, a quotation, a song or an AI output, and what to check before you publish.
Found online does not mean free to use
Where you found a work tells you nothing about whether you may use it. Trace it to its owner, match the permission to your exact use, and keep the record.
What a license is actually letting you do
A license covers the uses it names and nothing more. Read the grant against your actual plan, check the limits and conditions, confirm the licensor owns what they licensed, and get a new permission in writing when the plan changes.
How to ask for permission
Find the person who controls the right you need, ask for one specific use of one specific work, and get the answer in writing before you rely on it.
How fair use works in the United States
Fair use has no safe percentage. Weigh the four factors in section 107 against the one specific use you plan, and ask for permission when the answer is unclear.
Finding out whether something is in the public domain
Pin down the exact version, check its dates against the U.S. term rules, search the Copyright Office records, and keep what you find. An old story can sit inside a newer translation or recording that is still protected.
Creative Commons without the guesswork
Each Creative Commons license is a real permission with conditions attached. Check the source and the version, read the letters, credit the work properly, and know what the license leaves out.
Making things with AI
Copyright in something you made with AI covers what you contributed, not what the tool generated. Sort out what you supplied, what you created and what you plan to publish before you upload, publish or register.
Remixes and adaptations
What you add to an adaptation can be yours, but the work you started from stays someone else's. Name what you are taking, pick a lawful route, and register only what you added.
Faces and voices are not just another asset
A license for a photo or recording does not license the person in it. Get written consent that names each use of a face, voice or digital replica, and never make a real person appear to endorse something they did not.
When your work is used to train AI
If you think your work was used to train an AI system, save what you saw, register the work, block future crawling where you can, and decide what you want before you contact anyone.