[MUSIC] Welcome back. We're now going to continue on the legal related subject matter by covering the topic of Intellectual Property. As with some of the other items we've covered, it's important to consult a qualified attorney on this topic matter as well. I like to think of intellectual property as the components of your business that make your business uniquely yours. It's what differentiates you from the competition. It's the components of your business worth defending. This is an important point that a lot of business owners don't understand. Intellectual property is your responsibility to protect. Although in the United States you can file for IP protection with United States patent and trademark office, they are not responsible for searching for infringement on your IP. So make sure that if you think protecting your IP is important that you're also accounting for the possible expenses of defending it. For the purposes of this module my goal is to provide some basic information regarding the three mains types of IP that are utilized and protected by law in the United States. These are patents, copyrights, and trademarks. However, there's another form of IP that I want to briefly cover in this introduction which is known as a trade secret. You may have heard the term trade secret used in the past and probably assumed that like most secrets it basically means that you're at risk if someone finds it out. But remember in cases that are associated with trade secrets, it's most likely that the culprit who is stealing your IP is someone that you employ. And trade secrets, if handled correctly, actually provide you with legal protection against that risk. Examples of trade secrets are customer databases, business planning documents, product development plans, perhaps even recipes. Perhaps the most famous of all trade secrets is the formula for creating Coca-Cola, which has withstood the test of time. When it comes to enforcing trade secrets, the key is having extremely well documented controls to limit access and to ensure that all employees who do have access have signed off on confidentiality documents. The great thing about trade secrets is that if handled correctly, they have an unlimited life span and can provide a company with an incredible amount of IP protection. In many ways, trade secrets have a lot of benefits that are worth considering for a business that can take advantage of this form of protection. Okay, now that we have covered trade secrets, we'll dive into the details of the other forms of intellectual property worth considering, starting with patents. [MUSIC]