1 00:00:00,050 --> 00:00:03,010 - The notion of intellectual property 2 00:00:03,010 --> 00:00:07,010 is generally dreadful and totally overrated. 3 00:00:07,010 --> 00:00:11,040 When you talk about IP, you often think about something 4 00:00:11,040 --> 00:00:15,000 that protects your product. 5 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,020 Certain products need IP protection 6 00:00:18,020 --> 00:00:21,030 and there's really three types of IP protection. 7 00:00:21,030 --> 00:00:23,020 Type number one is copyright. 8 00:00:23,020 --> 00:00:24,080 Type number two is a patent 9 00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:28,030 and type number three is trade secret. 10 00:00:28,030 --> 00:00:30,030 At the very beginning of your company, 11 00:00:30,030 --> 00:00:32,080 the idea of what you can do with those different types 12 00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:35,070 of IP protections is something that can often 13 00:00:35,070 --> 00:00:39,010 be a big distraction to what you're doing. 14 00:00:39,010 --> 00:00:42,080 Most products are copyright and it's relatively easy 15 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:44,010 to copyright a product. 16 00:00:44,010 --> 00:00:47,060 So let's put copyright aside for this time being. 17 00:00:47,060 --> 00:00:51,010 Patent, you hear over and over again as an important thing, 18 00:00:51,010 --> 00:00:54,070 especially from investors to have patents on your products. 19 00:00:54,070 --> 00:00:56,030 The challenge with patents is 20 00:00:56,030 --> 00:00:58,070 it takes a bunch of years to get 'em. 21 00:00:58,070 --> 00:01:00,050 So as you're starting your company 22 00:01:00,050 --> 00:01:02,060 and starting to build your first product, 23 00:01:02,060 --> 00:01:05,010 you might have things that are patentable, 24 00:01:05,010 --> 00:01:07,040 but the cost and time that it's going to take you 25 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:10,090 to get your patent is sometime in the future. 26 00:01:10,090 --> 00:01:12,090 If you truly believe that your product 27 00:01:12,090 --> 00:01:16,040 is something that's novel and non-obvious, 28 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,000 in that context, you could apply for and get a patent. 29 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:22,070 However, the dynamics around patents 30 00:01:22,070 --> 00:01:24,090 are such that as an already staged company, 31 00:01:24,090 --> 00:01:28,000 it's often very hard to do much work around that. 32 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:30,090 So you can't get a patent before you're actually launching 33 00:01:30,090 --> 00:01:33,030 your product typically. 34 00:01:33,030 --> 00:01:35,010 Check with your lawyer in terms of the best way 35 00:01:35,010 --> 00:01:38,020 to actually create patent protection before you launch 36 00:01:38,020 --> 00:01:40,080 your product because there are some specific things to do, 37 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:43,080 but don't get hung up on the notion that the valuable thing 38 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:45,080 that you're creating is the patent. 39 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,070 In a lot of ways, the patent is merely 40 00:01:47,070 --> 00:01:50,060 a defensive mechanism against other people 41 00:01:50,060 --> 00:01:54,030 if they come out with something similar to you. 42 00:01:54,030 --> 00:01:55,070 The last, which is trade secret, 43 00:01:55,070 --> 00:01:58,010 which is how you actually create your product, 44 00:01:58,010 --> 00:02:01,040 and the trade secret in a lot of cases for startups 45 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:04,010 is where the real opportunity lies 46 00:02:04,010 --> 00:02:07,010 in terms of intellectual property protection. 47 00:02:07,010 --> 00:02:08,080 The way that you build the product, 48 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:10,070 the material that goes into it, 49 00:02:10,070 --> 00:02:12,050 the software that goes into it, 50 00:02:12,050 --> 00:02:15,020 the types of things that you have to do to make it work 51 00:02:15,020 --> 00:02:18,010 the way it does is really the essence 52 00:02:18,010 --> 00:02:20,070 of where intellectual property protection 53 00:02:20,070 --> 00:02:22,070 comes at the early stages. 54 00:02:22,070 --> 00:02:26,030 So it's not that you should ignore IP protection, 55 00:02:26,030 --> 00:02:29,060 but that you should recognize that it's a small component 56 00:02:29,060 --> 00:02:32,070 of what you're trying to do in the context of your product, 57 00:02:32,070 --> 00:02:35,080 that often is very over emphasized by people who say, 58 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:37,070 oh, well, you know, you can't tell the world about anything 59 00:02:37,070 --> 00:02:40,010 you're doing until you have that IP protection. 60 00:02:40,010 --> 00:02:41,020 Be careful of that. 61 00:02:41,020 --> 00:02:43,050 Be careful of overplaying the dynamics 62 00:02:43,050 --> 00:02:46,020 of what that IP protections going to be. 63 00:02:46,020 --> 00:02:47,000 Last comment. 64 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,010 It depends a lot on the product. 65 00:02:49,010 --> 00:02:51,050 If your product is a highly technical, 66 00:02:51,050 --> 00:02:53,090 new type of machine that has a huge amount 67 00:02:53,090 --> 00:02:56,090 of invention in it that's very complex, 68 00:02:56,090 --> 00:02:59,020 patents are going to be really meaningful. 69 00:02:59,020 --> 00:03:01,050 If it's a new type of breakfast cereal, 70 00:03:01,050 --> 00:03:03,070 probably not so much. 71 00:03:03,070 --> 00:03:06,050 It doesn't mean that the new type of breakfast cereal 72 00:03:06,050 --> 00:03:09,010 couldn't be a hugely successful business. 73 00:03:09,010 --> 00:03:10,040 But it does mean that, for example, 74 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:13,030 a patent is probably not going to be the thing that causes 75 00:03:13,030 --> 00:03:16,030 your new type of breakfast cereal to be super successful. 76 00:03:16,030 --> 00:03:19,000 So make sure you understand IP protection and the context 77 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,000 of the type of opportunity you're going after.