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Copyright & Content Marketing

Lesson 4 from: Copyright, Trademark, and Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs

Rachel Rodgers

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Lesson Info

4. Copyright & Content Marketing

Lesson Info

Copyright & Content Marketing

So let's talk about copyright and content marketing ninety four percent of small businesses do content marketing why? Because it's very effective it works right? So we're all blogging and we're doing podcasts and we've got video siri's and we've got article siri's and we've got all these different ways that we're creating content and using it for marketing purposes. Now all of this content is intellectual property and you can use it in so many different ways, right? This is something that I do all the time so like for example again with small business bodyguard my legal kit just to give you an example of how I've used my I p in several different ways this was just how I run my business right? So a lot of the information that I'm sharing there are templates that I used to work with my clients one on one my step by step process is for how I go about forming an llc or an s corp you know, all that type of content was how I sort of repackaged it and then used it to create this product right...

? So it's like taking your I p that you've already got on dh just repackaging it in multiple different ways and then I've taken, you know, bits and pieces of that information from that product and written articles for my blawg you know or done videos on specific topics so you can take that content that you have and repackage it in a bunch of different ways for example, you might have a podcast and so you could have a discussion about a particular topic on your podcast then you could have the audio for that podcast transcribed and turn it into an article and then you can take that transcription and use it as a script to do a video rights you can take your content and put it in a million different formats and this is really effective didn't use it for social media post you can create images with quotes from your different articles on there so content marketing is really effective were creating tons of I p when we do content marketing and it's incredibly valuable because we can use it in so many different ways to drive revenue in our business is right and so that's why it deserves protecting. So this is the number one legal mistake entrepreneurs make you've left your most valuable business asset flapping in the wind okay, so when you've got incredible content that you're creating, you need to register the copyright for all of that content. Now I know that you're thinking well, I already have common law copyright when I create something and that's true, but unfortunately you don't get a lot of benefits of copyright registration when you do that and those benefits are substantial so here some of them you put the world on notice that you are the creator and owner of the work, right? So you get to take credit for what you're creating. This can also come in handy, too, and you need to prove whether if someone infringes on your work, whether it's, willful infringement or not, ok, so that's an important benefit, you also create an official government record of your creation and ownership of the work. So you're basically creating a birth certificate for that content and being able to show that you are the creator and the owner of it, you have an easy, an official way to sell your ownership in the work, so those copyright certificates are asked that that you can then transfer to other people if you want to sell that content at some point. And you know what I recommend is, you know, if for some reason you're not using content anymore or if you want to sell your business at some point, I've done a lot of transactions this year with folks selling either their business or certain aspect assets in their business. So, you know, you might be in a position where you decide you want to move on to something else you want to sell either some assets in your business or the entire business in and of itself. Having captured all of the intellectual property in, you know, trademark registrations and copyright registrations is going to be really important to show any potential buyer the value that sitting in the business, so another important benefit is that you have the privilege of bringing a federal law that you can actually sue for copyright infringement in federal court unless you have a copyright registration, okay, for that content, so not always do you actually want to bring a lawsuit? But then you have the privilege of making that threat, ok? You're not in a position to do that if you don't have a copyright registration and a lot of times, you know, if you're dealing with copyright infringers, they're very sophisticated, they know what they can get away with and what they can so it's important, that you know that, too, and trust me, a lot of times they will actually search the copyright registration office to see if you've registered that content, and if you haven't, then they know that there's, not much you can do if they continue to steal, misuse your stuff. Okay, so that's, why it's so common? Because you're not taking steps to protect yourself, you're making yourself vulnerable so that's why copyright registration is important in that you know, ability to bring a federal lawsuit can be very useful. And then lastly, you get to seek statutory damages and attorney's fees in the lawsuit. So that means if you have to bring a lawsuit and you win, you can know that money that you laid out to bring that lawsuit. Anything that you paid, the attorney is going to come back to you, ok? So you can get that money back, and then you'd also get statutory damages, which is really significant because of someone let's, say steals, of course, right, and starts passing it off as their own. How do you prove what your damages were? How do you prove how that affected your reputation or how that affected your sales? It's really hard to prove so statutory damages come in? It comes in really, really handy because it takes away the need to prove anything. And you all you have to do is show that there was copyright infringement, and then you automatically get thirty thousand dollars, for instance, of copyright infringement. And then if it's willful copyright infringement, meaning the purpose person did it on purpose and knew they were infringing on your mark and did it anyway. Then you're talking about over one hundred thousand dollars per instance of infringement, ok, so substantial amounts of money that make it worthwhile for a small business. Bring a lawsuit in these cases so that some of the benefits of copyright registration so I don't want you to make this mistake, make sure that you register the copyright for all of your prize content, so that includes courses you know, your self published books, your e books, your website, copy your block, your photos, curriculum videos, your podcasts or other audio recordings. There's a lot of content sitting in your business. I know you're sitting there thinking about it right now. All the stuff that you've created, we'll start to take steps to register the copyright for all that content and then start doing it on a regular basis. Maybe you want to do it monthly, depending on how much content you create on a regular basis or you can do it quarterly, but just create a system of registering all of the content with the copyright office on a regular basis. Okay, on dh, this is not something that's super hard. You don't have to have a lawyer do it. You can do it yourself. The filing fee is like thirty five to fifty five dollars, depending on a couple of different factors, but still, no matter what pretty cheap. On dh. Just to give you a comparison, I charged one thousand two hundred fifty dollars, or twelve fifty for each copyright registration when I worked with my clients, so for some people, they don't want to deal with it. They'd rather somebody else do it. But I think the reason why you're taking this course today is because you want to be empowered and know how to take care of this stuff for yourself. So I'm going to show you how to do it right now. And now you'll know how to do a copyright registration and save the legal fees, and also be able to really protect yourself and your content.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Rachel Rodgers - Copyright Cheat Sheet.pdf
Rachel Rodgers - CreativeLive Handout.pdf
Rachel Rodgers - DMCA eBook.pdf
Rachel Rodgers - Entrepreneur Clauses.docx

Ratings and Reviews

Tina Greenlee
 

Valuable insight and information! Wish I'd run across this sooner in my entrepreneur journey. The information about whats needed if someone infringes on your trademark or copyright is super powerful! Learning that you need to register your materials with copyright.gov consistently was huge. Wasn't on my radar or in my plan. Now there's a pre-launch item to register the program/content with the website before its released into the world. Also need to add it in as a budget item and expected/planned for expense. DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THIS COURSE.

Julz P
 

Very good, covers all topics very well. I enjoyed learning about licensing, as a small business owner I never thought about it and how it could create another revenue stream. Thank you!

Andrew Clark
 

Just watching a "free" preview; Rachel seems very thorough about this much needed to know subject. Thank you Rachel and I hope you continue to offer more legal type courses for us creatives!!!

Student Work

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