Protect yourself!
It's a small world and not everyone is trustworthy.
Today’s topic is critical for EVERY business, and especially so for family businesses who hope to grow and expand over time: the protection of your intellectual property, including brand, logo, and image among other things.
Today is a special case: this post is an Action post, the kind of consulting advice we offer our clients and our paid subscribers. But because it’s such an important issue and so broadly applicable to all family systems, we’re making this a free post available to all.
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We publish an identical publication in Spanish: Las Empresas Familiares Son Mejores. Here’s a direct link to this article in Spanish.
You might be TOO trusting
Despite what others would like you to think, the reality is that families in business generally deal with very little deception or bad faith. Everyone involved knows that bad behavior will eventually be discovered, and no one wants to face severe consequences like losing cherished relationships or being financially penalized.
So most members of family systems behave themselves. And the environment is generally fairly warm, open, safe, and trusting: you KNOW that people are not going to lie to you or deceive you. This is absolutely and totally a wonderful thing! There is no downside to this INSIDE the family system.
However, families sometimes get a little too comfortable and too trusting, and they tend to forget that there are plenty of people in the world who will try to take advantage of them.
Protect yourself!
I understand that, when you start your first business, you often don’t have the extra money to register all your trademarks and copyrights, and take on all the work and expense of patents and other ways to protect your intellectual property. Small startups are often also less careful than they should be with contracts and other legal documents.
But once the family business has achieved some level of success, it’s very important to go back and do all your paperwork in detail.
Also very important: do this in YOUR country but also in OTHER markets where you might wish to operate in the future.
And think a few steps ahead
Ask yourself: “what would have to happen for someone to take this brand/registration away from me?” and “how or why could this intellectual-property registration be cancelled?”
In many places, simply registering your brand, logo, and other intellectual property protects you properly. But other markets have rules that give unscrupulous actors space to try to take advantage of you.
This is not just a hypothetical concern! It actually happens.
Frisby in Spain
While I can cite dozens of examples, a perfect case in point is happening RIGHT NOW in Spain: someone decided to copy one of the world’s best-known fried-chicken restaurants, the amazing Pollo Frisby which is a legend in their native Colombia.
Frisby is a multigenerational family business that was founded in Pereira, Colombia in 1977 and has grown to nearly 300 restaurants and employs nearly 6,000 people. It is a cultural icon, and both the business and the family are beloved and admired.
They are also legally and properly registered in the European Union.
And yet, they are currently facing a challenge from someone who is trying to subvert the legal system to take over their intellectual-property registrations in Europe and set up a copycat operation using the same name, logo, and mascot.
A massive outpouring of support
Many (many!) brands and civil entities have expressed support for Frisby’s defense of their European registrations. Here are examples of social-media posts by JetSmart Colombia…
and Buffalo Wild Wings Colombia…
and even their direct competitors, KFC Colombia!
The court of public opinion is clearly and fiercely on the side of Pollo Frisby. To the best of my knowledge, not a single major brand has come out in support of the Spanish company trying to take over Frisby’s intellectual property in Europe.
I hope Frisby Colombia will triumph in this legal battle. But such things are never guaranteed! And for you, my advice is to minimize the risk of such things as much as you possibly can. You cannot always prevent someone from attacking you; but when you can, it’s always preferable to prevent than to be forced to defend.
Your team of advisors
Anyone who knows me has heard me say humorously that if you have children, you need a pediatrician… and if you have a family business, you need a good family-business consultant.
But of course, you need a good TEAM of advisors who all understand family systems and dynamics: and that team needs to include a lawyer with expertise in international intellectual property concerns.
See you on Thursday!