Shifting so many functions at home and at work to get it all done puts Catholic business moms at risk of missing important, non-urgent tasks.

Managing your intellectual property (IP) easily tops the list of ignored activities.

Understanding the basics of intellectual property now could save you a lot of money and heartache down the road.

So what is intellectual property? Guy McClung, a patent and copyright attorney, defines intellectual property as “non-real, non-dirty, non-physical intangible personal property that results from mental processes.”

Atty McClung distinguishes the four types of intellectual property:

• Trademarks: a symbol or logo that identifies your company (trade names, trade dress)
• Trade Secrets – Anything of value to your business that you wouldn’t give to anyone for free. These include the people you include to buy supplies, the customer list, anything of value like a device or process, a collection of information.
• Copyrights: apply to works of authorship (paintings, artworks, reports, brochures, books, anything produced that can be copied)
• Patents: deals with inventions (things, processes, methods)

Still not jumping off the couch to get into action?

Here’s why you need to have an IP plan:

1. Short-term gain for long-term pain: Neglecting your intellectual property needs now could mean that in the future, as your business and brand flourish, you might be asked to change your business name or logo in case you infringe intellectual property. of other. This can have a disastrous effect on your followers and your results.
2. Give it away for free: Ignorance and inaction about copyright laws could lead you to screwed up book deals where you could lose the rights to your published signature systems. Your content could also be stolen without credit or compensation simply because you didn’t include a copyright symbol at the bottom of every document, website, and social media site.
3. Giving away the farm: Not recognizing what trade secrets you have and how to keep them protected could easily leave you with former employers without signed disclosure statements and walk away with customer lists, processes, procedures, and contact lists that took you years to accumulate. Even carelessness with computer security protection could compromise your intellectual property in the wrong person’s hands.

Don’t get that itch- “Oh no, I’m doing a lot of bad things feeling and I already have a lot to do!”

An intellectual property plan doesn’t have to be stressful.