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Mortgages that do more to help you compete in today's market and savings accounts and certificates that help you plan for the future. It's easy to apply. Visit pen fed dot org today to get started to receive any advertised product you must become a member of pen fed, federally insured by NCAA equal housing lender. Hey guys, are you ready for some money rehab? Wall Street has been completely upended by an unlikely player. GameStop. And should I have a 401k 'cause then I have to do it? No, I know. You and your money. Well it doesn't. I got charge for wasting our time. I will take a check. You recognize her from anchoring on CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg. The only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. The cold lappin. Yesterday we talked about brainstorm in your business's name. And I told you the story about the legal rigmarole that I had to go through to get my brand trademarked. These sorts of legal battles are something I would never wish on anyone. So I highly recommend that any entrepreneur take the initiative to protect what's theirs. ASAP. The trademarking your brand isn't the only thing you need to protect if you're a business owner. You also have to be on top of your copyright game if you have an actual product, like written works, poems, articles, or books, music, movies, or visual designs, like wallpaper, or jewelry. An application to copyright a single work will cost about $35, and you can start the process on copyright dot gov. If you don't have these types of products, but invented something. Okay, smarty pants, then you need to get a patent. These applications start on the U.S. patent office's website, USPTO dot gov. Be prepared to spend some time on this application because it gets super detailed, asking you to present drawings and schematics of your invention. These patents can also get pricey. Depending on the invention, prices can range from a $100 to $3000 to secure your patent. Not including the price of lawyers if you can't figure it out yourself. Before starting the patent process, be sure you really did come up with the work you're protecting. If it's not original or there's something similar that has been patented, then you'll need to prove that yours is different and better. Let's take a second and step back and unpack the jargon. These legally terms get used interchangeably when people get confused, but there are important differences, so I want to make sure you get them straight. Trademark is for a brand. It's that little TM at the top right if you're claiming the rights to a product or idea, or that little R in a circle if you've actually gone ahead and formally registered the trademark. Copyright is for a work or idea. It's that little C in a circle. Patent is for an invention. This one gets a badass patent stamp. So while these terms are all different, they are similar in what they are designed to do, which is to protect your intellectual property. If you need to rewind this episode and listen to these definitions a second or third time then do it. You need to be super clear on this terminology so that you know exactly what you need to apply for. All of these processes fall under different government offices and trust me, you do not want to spend a bunch of money only to realize that you're wandering around the wrong office or need to start over. There are some major cautionary tales that advise business owners not to sleep on getting patents. For example, you may have learned in school about one of the most important inventions in history. The telephone invented by Alexander Graham bell in 1876. Or, so your history textbooks will tell you. That's actually not how it really went down. Before bell, there was another inventor. Antony meucci, who created an early iteration of the telephone, but wasn't able to scrounge up the entire chunk of change needed to get a patent at the time. And then again, at the very same time that bell was rushing to get his patent together, there was another inventor Alicia gray, who apparently submitted a patent for the telephone right around the same time as though. But Belle drive the patent officer. And ended up getting the patent. And the money. And all the credit in all the history books. Another cautionary tale revolves around the invention of the laser. Scientist Gordon Gould created the very first laser, which is obviously a hugely important invention to technology, like printers, semiconductors, and many scientific processes, including DNA sequencing techniques, and of course, every cat's favorite toy, the laser pointer. But naturally, like a true scientist, Gould wanted to make sure his invention was absolutely flawless before filing a patent. But while gold was tinkering with his invention, two of his coworkers stole his laser technology, and they patented it. Gould was eventually able to get his name on the invention and get a few mail back in royalties. But the legal battle to get what was rightfully his took three decades to resolve and probably a huge chunk of change. Here's one more. Ian schrager, the businessman behind New York City's iconic club Studio 54 didn't keep up with his intellectual property work. And the trademark expired on his brand. So MGM Resorts was able to scoop the name up and open a Studio 54 in Las Vegas without giving Ian a single penny. Can you imagine? You spend countless nights burning the candle at both ends building your brand and then it's taken from you completely legally and someone else makes money off your hard work? Hell no. I don't want to see that ever happen to you. And you can prevent it. So do it. I mean, they do say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. I get it, but there's also a huge difference between imitation and flat out theft. Surprisingly, Steve Jobs, one of the most decorated inventors of all time said, Picasso had a saying, good artists, copy, great artists, steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas. Anyway, I'd like to a man Picasso saying to good artists copy, great artists steal and eternal artists, trademark.