| Leading Companies Online Magazine
A Patent is a Copyright is a Trademark, and Vice-Versa!
By Ray Smilor, Beyster Institute Executive Director
 
J. Nevin Shaffer, Jr. is in the protection business. If you have an idea, a new product, an invention, a creative work or just a brainstorm, he’s your man. Nevin is an intellectual property attorney, and he helps people protect what they create. This is especially important for entrepreneurs, who often do not understand the tremendous value of what their creative minds come up with.
I encounter a lot of entrepreneurs who think that a patent is somehow like a copyright which is something like a trademark. All these terms just seem to blur together for them. It gets confusing. And too many attorneys seem to make intellectual property issues harder rather than easier to understand. As a result, a lot of businesspeople don’t do anything to protect what they create.
If you’re like that, have I got a book for you!
Nevin just published a terrific book that provides practical advice on every aspect of intellectual property that is not only clear and easy to understand, but also a lot of fun to read.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to acknowledge that Nevin is a dear friend of mine. We were neighbors together in Austin, Texas. As we would sit in our backyards pondering and finding solutions for the problems of the world, including those of entrepreneurs and their companies, my son Matthew would go on beer runs for us. In the course of those conversations, I came to appreciate more than ever the power of protecting one's ideas.
Now Nevin has put his years of experience into a very good guide. His book, Protect Your Great Ideas for Free!, is hot off the presses from Maximum Press. Designed for businessmen, entrepreneurs, inventors, authors and artists, the book explains with telling examples, fascinating anecdotes, and sometimes laugh-out-loud humor why you should protect your innovations and exactly how to do it.
Nevin combines wisdom with wit, information with insight, and facts with fun.
After reading the book, you’ll know that a patent really is different from a copyright which is not at all like a trademark. More importantly, you’ll understand when and how to use these in your own business.
You’ll also get the answers to things like the top ten questions he hears from entrepreneurs, and you’ll learn the top five questions you should ask any intellectual property attorney you’re thinking of hiring.
Protecting what you create is important, and Nevin’s book really will help you do that.
I do have one caution though for you, should you have the good fortune to deal with Nevin directly. As a graduate of Annapolis, he pines for the days of Roger Stauback. So just don’t get him started on Navy football!
By the way, he said that if I help sell his book, he’ll have his son, Nevie, manage the next beer run.
©2006. The Beyster Institute and its authors and their entities. All rights reserved.
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