Successful global entrepreneurs understand that IP is key

You’ve got a breakthrough new product or service idea, and you want to take it to the world and become the next global billionaire. So, what’s stopping you?

For small start-up and SME level businesses, while the personal and financial rewards are certainly clear and enticing, the hurdles to success often seem daunting or even overwhelming. So, you decide to seek comfort and consolation in yet another expensive, quaffable enough cappuccino and muffin at the ubiquitous big-brand global coffee-shop franchise around the corner, as you resign yourself to a life of simply dreaming about what might have been.

Guess what? The billionaire behind that globally-franchised coffee shop (in which you have virtually taken out a massive share portfolio worth of coffee purchases over the last 10 years), was once a person with a great idea, just like you!

So, what did they know and do to get them to where they are now, which you don’t know or don’t feel able to do?

While success as a global business entrepreneur involves a plethora of personal and learned traits, skills, abilities and experiences, chances are that the billionaire global coffee shop franchisor understood the value of Intellectual Property.

Think about it. The coffee and muffin and all the other edibles that you so regularly purchase are pretty much the same as those that you will find at most other local unbranded outlets. So, what’s the difference?

May I suggest that it all comes down to a bunch of creatives and intangibles which, in combination, deliver a level of enjoyable certainty and consistency to your daily life experience, all of which keep you coming back again and again.

First and foremost, the franchise business name (what we IP lawyers call a ‘trademark’) says it all. Then there’s the detail of the menu, the décor, the atmosphere and “feel” of the place, in other words all the components of the brand that customers seek.

Whether you’re in down-town New York, or a small village in Africa, if you’re thirsty and hungry and looking for something to quench that thirst and satiate that hunger, or simply to give you a much needed pick-up for the day, and you turn the corner at the end of the street and see a big ‘familiar’ brand,  it immediately triggers happy memories.

While there may be other shops close by, which may deliver an even better and more nourishing experience, you resist the little voice inside you, suggesting that you explore what else is on offer (on the basis that you could get the same thing when you are back in UK any time). 

Instead, you meekly obey that other voice of ‘familiarity’ and ‘security’ which says, “You know what, I know what I’m going to get, I like what I get, so I’ll just go and get it. Maybe I’ll explore the delights of those little Turkish coffee shops with those fabulous aromas and interesting decor another day!”

What is it that generates such global pulling power and brand loyalty? In short: Intellectual Property.

Put simply, the billionaire owner of that global coffee shop chain understands that their business not merely runs but owes its success in large part to really clever and effective marketing, management and exploitation of all of its Intellectual Property assets.  These will include:

a. The copyright. For example in: (i) its website, (ii) soft and hard copy advertising and marketing materials, SEO campaigns and activities and (iii) its franchise and brand management policies, guides and instructions.

b. The registered and unregistered trade marks and associated common law legal rights like Passing Off (chasing and dealing with copycat businesses looking to piggy-back off your success). Trade marks can be the brand’s words, devices (logos), taglines, colour schemes and distinctive ‘trade get up’ or ‘look and feel’ of the layout and design and décor of each franchise shop outlet.

c. The design (distinctive shape) of its brand-specific coffee cups and mugs (AKA the merch).

d. The confidential information, trade secrets, and know-how behind its tried and tested, proven-successful business protocols and procedures. Its entire supply chain of manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, and the marketing power from its extensive customer/consumer digital databases.

e. Physical or software patents in some functional item or possibly a clever business method which it uses to run its global franchise.

Now, you have a choice.

You can go ahead and purchase another ‘comfort’ coffee and muffin from that global billionaire coffee shop franchisor or you can come and have a talk with Liz Ward and her team. Liz is the founder and principal of Virtuoso Legal. The whole team at Virtuoso Legal are specialists and will provide you with some down-to-earth practical and affordable specialist IP and commercial legal support to help you take your first steps toward becoming that next global billionaire.   

Email: liz@virtuosolegal.com  or call 0113 237 9900