Starting a new business in the flourishing cannabis industry has many issues that are specific to the industry. Yet business owners will also face the usual things that business owners in all other industries must deal with.
One thing you definitely need to concern yourself with is protecting your intellectual property. Here are the three options to do this:
A trademark
Trademarks are key to protecting a brand. It covers things such as names, logos and slogans. So, if you want to prevent someone else from opening up a chain of stores with the same name as yours, or using the catchy soundbite you dreamt up to advertise your product, then consider trademarking things.
A copyright
Images and text will be crucial to your marketing success. If you spend months creating an informative website, you don’t want someone to come along and lift all the information to benefit their own rankings. Copyrighting your creative work can help prevent this.
A patent
An example where you might need a patent is if you come up with a new bong to improve the marijuana experience. If it’s as good as you believe, others will be quick to try and copy it and steal your market. If yours involves a new technology or process you might be able to gain a patent for it. A mere cosmetic difference would not be sufficient.
There will always be people willing to take a risk and steal other people’s work and ideas. With appropriate legal guidance, you can find suitable protections to make the chance someone steals from you less likely, and give yourself legal backing if they do.