Planning for the New Year
By David French
I was recently sitting at a hotel bar and overheard a circle of businessmen talking at a nearby table. I couldn’t help listening in. What I heard spaced over about an hour was strangely familiar:
- I thought I was going to get rich when I put my new patented invention on the market. Why isn’t it happening?
- It seemed like a good idea to copy my competitor’s layout. Why am I being sued now?
- I wrote some code like what I need now at my former employer’s business. I think I will check my old laptop and use it again.
- Let’s put our daughter and son’s names together and use that as our trademark. I’m sure “Mercedes-Ben’s” will stand out in the marketplace.
- There’s no point in checking name registers in the United States; we’re never going to sell product in the U.S.
- Mike is our key man in sales. I’m sure if he invents an improvement to our product that this will belong to the company.
