8 Steps IP Lawyers Should Take To Improve Their Email Marketing And Attract Clients

If you are an Intellectual Property legal services professional whose email marketing campaigns have failed miserably in the past, then this article will show you what you need to work on in order to be more successful.

You should not abandon email marketing campaigns altogether, but improve them in order to attract and retain clients.

When IP legal services professionals use emails effectively during marketing campaigns, they should:

Educate prospects, and not simple list the services they provide. Point prospects and clients towards resources that answer questions they may have. This could be reports, articles, webinars, seminars or presentations. Show prospects and clients how to achieve desired outcomes. Great examples of this are step-by-step guides prospects can download or order, and which give some sort of road map that would need to be followedto reach a certain conclusion. Form part of a well-planned sequence of online and offline communications to prospects that helps build trust and stops IP legal services professionals being perceived simply as intrusive salespeople. Some of the key mistakes IP legal services professionals make that result in poor email marketing campaigns include: Email headers that get emails more likely to be captured by SPAM filters. The lack of personalisation, which means readers are less likely to feel the email is important to them. Emails that do NOT have any information that is of value to readers - just stuff about the company or IP legal services professional(s), types of services provided, length of time principle players have been in practice, qualifications, etc. Emails with no call to action - i.e. with nothing that would get readers to respond with a specific action within a given time or to take advantage of an extremely good offer. Given the above, here are a few things IP legal services professionals should do to make sure their email marketing campaigns are affective and, more importantly, produce measurable results that can be monitored:

Think about a specific end-goal for each email. What actions do you want the reader to take after the reading the email? Keep the desired response simple. For example, do not try and get prospects to download a free report AND call you to book a free consultation at the same time. Try to aim for one or the other. Learn how to write effective headlines. If you don't capture a reader's attention with the headline, they will lose interest immediately. What resources do you have that your readers are dying to get hold of, and which the email is promoting? Do you have reports, webinars, interviews or demonstrations that address your readers' fears and frustrations? If your answer is yes, then your email should explain how the information you have will give readers the end result they are looking for or need. If necessary, get a copywriter to draft your emails if you don't have the time to learn how to write powerful emails yourself. Do you have a call to action that increases the sense of urgency for readers and gets them to respond within a given time to your marketing campaign? If not, you better think of one. Are you selling your services directly in the emails you send out? If so, how about stopping and focusing on the information you have available for prospects and clients. If you are as good as you say you are, the prospects you want to attract will come to you. You don't want to do the written version of picking up the phone and cold calling. The results are the same the and the feeling you get is no different...sick! Have you prepared a sequence of emails to your target niche in order to keep them updated on the information you have available, or webinars/seminars you are running to show them how to solve their problems? On average, it takes 7 touch points before prospects buy anything. Plan for this, but make sure the email sequence is logical and moves prospects down a sales funnel. Use autoresponders to capture your prospects details and systemise your email communications. I use AWeber, but there are other companies out there that have great tools you can explore as well. Think about the timing of emails you send out - readers are less likely to act on marketing emails sent at 9.30 am on a Monday compared to 2 pm on a Wednesday as they recover from weekends and are making plans for the week ahead. Tuesday, Wednesday and, to a lesser extent, Thursday are the best days to send emails out to prospects. If you want to create a position of authority within a target niche as an IP legal services professional, and get prospects contacting you for your services, you need to think carefully about how you craft your emails and plan your email marketing campaigns. Getting your readers' attention is absolutely vital if you want to prevent your emails being deleted, getting caught by SPAM or simply ignored...not the kinds of thing you what happening when trying to attract new clients. Every Innovative Irish Idea Deserves to Be Protected Correctly in Law   Intellectual Property Infringement and Patent Law   Why You Need a Loan Modification Attorney When Your House Is On The Line   Intellectual Property Lawyers and How to Tackle IP Litigation   Basics of Trademarks for Small Business   Managing the Unmanageable for Law Office/Firms Management   

2011: The Legal Challenges for the IT Industry

Social media, SaaS digital and on-demand broadcasting will continue to dominate 2011 and the legal world will still be struggling to legislate and regulate online copyright issues, new licensing models and content licensing issues. These rapid technology developments are once again seeing intellectual property straining to catch up and to address things like costs of obtaining permissions from existing rights-holders and the complexity of enforcing IP rights within the UK and internationally.

ISP liability: not a new issue but definitely one that continues to be relevant here because under the Copyright Directive and The Electronic Commerce Directive internet service providers can be liable for failing to take down offensive, defamatory or IPR-infringing content. In such circumstances, corporate customers should seek an indemnity for any loss suffered as a result of material being unnecessarily deleted or moved and should insist on being notified in advance if any content is to be removed. The Digital Economy Act is also making ISPs responsible in the event of online copyright infringement activities.

: with the convergence and synergy of action of various equipment/technology, trying to apportion liability and responsibilities in the event of IP infringement is going to get very difficult.

Content licensing: obtaining permissions from existing rights-holders for use of pictures, video or audio content, and the cost and complexity of enforcing IP rights within the UK and internationally. Generally, the standard terms and conditions include a broad licence allowing them to use any content stored on its servers. Customers should take particular care in identifying any rights they are agreeing to provide to the vendor. The content provider will look to exclude all liability for content stored or posted on its services and will normally include a right in its standard terms to remove any data from its servers. Privacy: including online employees and children protection

Cloud computing: as service-based computing continues to move towards becoming a utility paid for by metered access, "platforms as a service" (PaaS) where third parties can host their software applications in order to distribute them to customers, software as a service and fabric-based infrastructure, where a system is aggregated from separate building block components by means of a fabric (a stack of switches on a backplane that connects together the functions that a PC or laptop performs today, like processor, memory, input/output and system software) will be used more often.

SaaS/PaaS vendors have very high numbers of contracts globally, they generally seek to offer their services on standard terms. These terms tend to be strongly supplier-centric, excluding all but the most limited of warranties and any liability for data loss or corruption or service failure. In the UK, standard terms (and in particular any exclusions or limits of liability) are subject to the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA) and therefore must be reasonable but it is far safer to seek to negotiate key provisions in advance rather than rely on statutory protection after an issue arises. It is also likely that customers will need to ask for service levels and service credits to be proposed.

Also in a SaaS/PaaS scenario, appropriate software licences need to be granted to the customer. This is because users have online use of software at a PC and, without a licence, this would amount to copyright infringement.

The SaaS vendor will not always own the intellectual property rights in the software that is the subject of the SaaS arrangements. Where this is the case the SaaS vendor will need to arrange for the right to sub-license the software to its customers, or for a direct licence to be entered into between the customers and the relevant third party licensor. In these latter circumstances, the SaaS contract should make it clear that the SaaS vendor is responsible for the management of the third party licences, together with the payment of any licence fees. The third party licensor should also be informed that the licence arrangements relate to licensing only. All other issues relating to the provision of the software, such as delivery, installation and configuration requirements, should be dealt with in separate agreements between the customer and the SaaS vendor.

The inclusion of intellectual property indemnities in SaaS contracts is important, because SaaS customers have to rely on the SaaS vendor to ensure that software licensing issues have been resolved so as to entitle the customer to use the software as part of the SaaS. However, if the arrangements are not properly made, the customer may still infringe the IPR of a third party even though it may have no knowledge of the infringement. SaaS users need to be aware of the possibility of patent infringement through the use of SaaS arrangements. Patent protection is increasingly available for computer software in the US and, to a lesser extent, in the EU. Where SaaS arrangements are established on an international basis, the IPR indemnity needs to be sufficiently broad to protect the SaaS customer in all jurisdictions in which the software will be used.

In conclusion the attention and contract negotiation swifts but not disappears. In stead of software licensing or outsourcing contracts, attention will be given to services agreements, image rights and data protection issues.

All articles are for general purposes and guidance only and do not constitute legal or professional advice. Copyright 2010 Anassutzi & Co Limited. All rights reserved. Information may be shared or reproduced only if accompanied by the author's name and bio.

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What Patent Strategies Can Be Used to Improve Competitiveness of a Business?

Introduction

The concept of patents can be traced back to the 14th century and it has consistently evolved over time. The concept of patents was introduced to encourage innovators by awarding exclusive rights over the improvements in technology made by them. In essence, a patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a country in exchange for a public disclosure of their invention. The rights granted to a patentee, in most countries, include, the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, importing, offering for sale or distributing the patented invention without permission of the patentee. This set of exclusive rights is granted for a limited period of time, and in most cases the right is limited to 20 years.

The exclusive rights granted to a patentee have business impact, some of which are listed below:

A patentee gets the liberty to enjoy monopoly over the patented invention for 20 years A patentee can monetize his patented invention by selling or licensing out his rights, in addition to other ways of monetizing Engineers and scientists can access a rich pool of patent information and improvise on existing technology Competitors will have to create non-infringing products and processes

The business impact of patents can be used to enhance the competitiveness of a business. A wholesome, systematic and customized approach towards patents is required to use the power of patents to positively impact your business.

4 fold approach for enhancing competitiveness

Build a patent fortress Proactively safeguard your business interests Respect others intellectual property Intelligent approach to product and process development

Build a patent fortress

One of the approaches for improving competitiveness of a business is by having product differentiators. Product differentiators are brought about by developing products that are technologically superior, has newer/better features or addresses specific needs of customers. Sometimes, there might not be any changes made to the product, however, companies might differentiate themselves from competition by offering products at reduced prices. This might be possible by making changes to the processes used in producing the product. Such modifications made to the products/processes might be patent worthy. Hence, when a company feels that they have made some modification that might be patent worthy, it is important to contemplate the idea of having such improvements protected by a patent.

It shall be noted that such improvements give added advantages to a business. If a company hasn't taken any measure to protect the improvement made by them, then competitors might as well copy such improvements, thereby diluting the advantage gained by the business. Further, competitors might copy the products and introduce the same at lower prices, as they would not have invested in developing the product/process. By protecting the improvements made to the products or processes, businesses gain at least the following advantages:

Create an entry barrier for competitors Maintain product or process differentiators Protect products or processes from being copied by competitors Enjoy monopoly over improvements for 20 years Increase valuation of the company

Proactively safeguard your business interests

The previous approach dealt with protecting technological improvements made by a company. While, the previous approach dealt with building a patent fortress to safeguard ones business territory, it is equally important to monitor the patent fortress' built by competitors.

It is often seen that, in a bid to build a patent portfolio that is as strong as possible, companies tend to protect things that already exist and sometime try to protect improvements that are not novel and are obvious. If they do succeed in protecting such existing and obvious technology using patents, then they might stop others from using such technology, or they can at least stop others from using such technology till somebody proves that the patents were wrongly granted.

It is important to take necessary actions to avoid being in a situation in which a company uses patents granted to an existing or obvious improvement to stop you from using such technology. This can be achieved by monitoring and opposing the patent applications filed in the technology that is of your interest

One can monitor patent applications filed by competitors and oppose grant of patent to such patent applications. On the other hand, one can also monitor patents that are getting granted in related technology fields, and opposes the patents even after the patent is granted. By taking such proactive steps, businesses gain at least the following advantages:

Ensure against obvious improvements being protected by competitors Enhance the valuation of patents held by you in a technology field Avoid being sued for infringing patents that shouldn't have been granted in the first place Easy access to freely use and adopt minor improvements in technology

Respect others intellectual property

In the previous two approaches, we dealt with building a patent fortress and ensuring that competitors do not strengthen their patent fortress using minuscule technological improvements. In the current approach we illustrate why it is important to respects others Intellectual Property rights.

As highlighted in the introduction, patents give exclusive rights to the patentee to exclude others from making, using, selling, importing, offering for sale or distributing the patented invention without permission of the patentee. In other words, if you copy, intentionally or otherwise, an invention patented by others, then you will be infringing on their patent right. A patentee can sue you for violating his patent rights, and if the court finds you guilty, then the damages that you might end up paying could be significant. Hence, it is important to be aware of patent rights held by others while carrying out your business.

A well proven approach to ensure that your products or processes don't infringe on others patent rights is by carrying out a Freedom to Operate (FTO) study before introducing a product in a country. It is important to dig out the patents that exist in the field that you operate in and determine if your products or processes infringe on others patents. If found that the products/processes might infringe on others patent rights, then necessary steps have to be taken to avoid such infringement, and thereby avoid expensive law suits. By taking such precautions you will at least gain the following advantages:

Ensure against introducing infringing products to the market Avoid expensive patent infringement suits Ensure that brand name is not tarnished by such infringement

Intelligent approach to product and process development

Remember, no one got too far by reinventing the wheel, neither will you; hence, there is no point in reinventing the wheel. It is important to appreciate the fact that most of the problems that we might be trying to solve, might have been solved by somebody else in some part of the world. Therefore, it will be intelligent on your part to look at such solutions and improvise on them. Patent data is considered to be the richest source of scientific information, and using this information is an intelligent approach to product and process development.

By harvesting information provided by patents, you can work on improving solutions provided by others. Hence, the solution provided by you might end up being much more superior and also different. Further, one reduces the possibility on developing something that has already been developed, hence, your investment in R&D yields better returns. Furthermore, one can bring down the cost of developing a product by simply copying a patented invention and introducing the same in a country where the invention has not been patented. Additionally, patent data can be used to analyze technology trends and plan your business accordingly.

The ways in which patent data can be used by businesses is endless, and the advantages gained by using patent data are tremendously valuable. Some of the advantages of using this approach are:

Enhanced returns on investment in R&D Development of products/processes that have improvised on existing technology Reduced cost of development of product/process Better business forecasting and planning

I hope you find this article helpful in crafting a patent strategy that is aligned with your business objectives.

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Hire Patent and Trademark Attorney to Accelerate the IPR Procedure

Trademark is the most valuable asset of a business establishment. People recognize the company by its logo, slogan, and package design, and these specified marks differentiate the goods and services from others. At times, it is violated which lead to unfair competition in the market. If you are at the receiving end of this trademark violation, then you need legal guidance from a patent and trademark attorney to defend your rights. These professionals will make sure that your idea and trade symbol is not copied by any rival company. And whatever idea or invention that you have incorporated into your business will be well protected. The patent and trademark attorney will help you in taking legal action against those who have infringed your rights.

If a person invents something, then he or she is given an official document called patent to stop others from using, copying, distributing and selling. Intellectual property rights take care of this patent violation including copyrights as well. As a patentee, you have the legal rights to sue the patent infringer in a court. If you have any issues related to this violation, first consult a NY Patent Attorney of a recognized patent law firm. While choosing an attorney, you must check the qualification and experience of the professional and the legal existence of the law firm. Based on these things, you can contact the firm for initial consultation through phone or e-mail. After going through your case, an attorney will decide on the best course of action. Make sure that you hire an attorney who is experienced and provide cost effective services.

The cost of the services differs from case to case. Services provided by the patent law firm are trademark applications, patent applications, copyrights, initial draft of contract etc. As per your case, the patent lawyer will prepare the legal documents and will present it to the court. If you have invented something, you must know how to patent and commercialize it. NY patent law is a very long process and complicated and it's not easy to go through the process all by yourself. You must hire an expert from an intellectual property law firm. Here, you will get the attorneys specialized in different fields, like IT, music, writer, movie, book, painting etc. You have the option to choose the attorney as per the requirement.

Whatever may be your profession or invention, for any patent and trade violation, rely on NY trademark lawyer of a reputed firm. Get your patent for the invention easily and quickly with the help of a Putnam County Attorney. It doesn't matter which part of the globe you belong, you have the chance to seek legal counsel for your invention and get your licensing rights. Our patent lawyer service exists in almost all fields like mechanical, chemical, biotech and many more. So without any delay, consult the attorney and get all the trademark and patent solutions in your favor.

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Is Banner Ad Marketing Still Worth It?

During the good old days of the Internet banners used to be everywhere. It was really easy to just throw up a banner on a website and get a huge response because people would click on it all day long. There's been a rumor going around for a few years now that banner advertising just isn't that effective anymore. The truth is Banner advertising still very effective but you have to know how to use it right.

One of the biggest myth states that people make when trying to use banners is not tracking their results. If you don't track your results it'll be hard for you to even figure out whether or not your banner ads are profitable. Another big mistake people make is putting banner ads on any site that they can get exposure in. This can be a problem because if the website doesn't have a proven track record of sending targeted traffic you may just be wasting your time.

If you're just getting started with banner advertising, it's a good idea to first start with the most popular banner advertising network. A few of them include buysellads.com, adbrite.com, and Google.com. The first thing you need to do though is get some banners created for your product or service. You can go on websites like Odesk and Elance to get a web designer that will create all the banners you'll need in order to advertise. What you want to do is make sure your banner stand out without looking too crazy. You don't want them to look too crazy because he still want it to look professional. Test different variations of your banner ads to see which ones get the most clicks because you don't get clicks you can get leads and you can't make sales. Once you figure out which banners get you the most clicks then it's your websites turn to convert those leads into sales.

If you follow these simple strategies and continue to test out different banner ads eventually you'll find a great combination that works for you all the time. Banner advertising is still very a that did it used the right way. Once you found the perfect formula for your business continue to milk it and grow your network by putting your banner ads on every website that is related to your product or service.

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How To Make High Quality Effective Banner Ads

How long does it take to create a banner ad? Hundreds of hours you might think and a lot of people think this too. In reality you can create one very easy with a fee design software program downloaded from the internet. Do this and you can create free banners ads in less time than you ever thought which means if you are into internet marketing it helps your business grow faster.

What You Will Need

Unless you are already a Photoshop professional you don't need it at all so forget about putting up hundreds of dollars and spending way too much time to learn Photoshop. In the learning part of creating banner ads you need to download one simple program called paint and you get it at GetPaint (use Google to find it) for free. Paint.net is a photo and graphic editor and has the tools you need to successfully make banner ads. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Photoshop has but it isn't $500 dollars either and is sufficient.

Make a Banner Ad with Paint.NET

Start your banner ad creation with the setting of the canvas size. A very common size is a horizontal 468 x 60. There are many more sizes of banner ads that you have likely seen on the internet such as 250 x 250 known as a block ad. Or the skyscraper banner ad which is 60 x 960 vertical. Try setting the canvas size at double or triple the size of the banner you want to produce, this will ensure that high quality images scale down just right when you upload to the location where they will be displayed.

Next thing to do after the canvas size is fixed is put on the graphics or background color this can be one color or can be images that are very complex. Try the simple background color to begin with then you can layer an image on top if you want. The key is not to flash the colors and images and take away from the message which is usually effective with text.

Banner ads are to convey information to visitors so using text is the best way to do this. If you where using banners for branding you would want to use images but if you need clicks to offers you should stay with text and a basic color background. Images can be used to complement text but not in place of it.

When you choose your colors for background and text they should be complementary it is common sense when creating banner ads that they should be pleasing to look at. Yellow and red go together well but some greens and blues may be harder to look at, I suggest a quick look around the web to see what looks good and makes you want to engage the ad. This will help you when choosing colors for creating your banner ad.

Flash and big ugly colors can make a potential customer turn away from it so be careful when using moving images and animation. Small amounts can have an effect and bring people into the banner ad but too much and you will have them leave the site completely.

Do You Want To Create Banners Faster

Remember to look into outsourcing if you don't want to create your own banner you can get this done many ways like RentACoder.com, Elance.com, or warrior forum. Some places like 20DollarBanners.com are just what it says $20 for a banner. I use Paint.net for headers also not just for banners and if you want you can get a program like XHeader or XHeader Pro which has templates for you to choose from. You can adjust the dimensions and make banners with the software.

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