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Hello, Dietitian bosses. Welcome and thank you for joining the Dietitian Boss podcast. Today we are joined by Danielle Liss, who is a lawyer and is going to help us understand a little bit about intellectual property, about how to formulate our business and to. Do we need an LLC? Do we not need an LLC?
And answer some of our general questions that we have been receiving here at Dietitian Boss, especially from some of our content creators and course creators in our rebellion group. So welcome, Danielle. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be. Yeah, we always enjoy having you here on the Dietitian Boss podcast and so grateful that you're willing to share your time and expertise with us.
Cause we know how important legal questions are, and copyright and trademark questions are, and it can really get in the way of people taking action and creating a business. When these fears up about, you know, what am I supposed to do about these complicated. So thank you so much for sharing your expertise.
Can you give us a broad overview for our rebellion members or Dietitians out there thinking about creating courses or mm-hmm online group programs, when is it appropriate to start thinking about an LLC? And if you wanna back up and describe an LLC a little bit to what that is, in case I'm introducing some new terms and concepts to our listeners.
Absolutely. So to go back to one thing that you said, I know that people do get overwhelmed with legal. Don't let it be a hangup. It is one of those things where it is an unknown. It can be very scary, but there is a lot of information out there that can hopefully, and hopefully this podcast will be part of that, that can help it seem a little less overwhelming.
Okay, so let's dive in. For LLCs, an LLC stands for Limited Liability Company. It is a company that you can form. It's less complicated than forming a corporation, but it gives you protection from personal liability, and that's usually what most people are looking for, so that their business is treated separately from themselves.
So that way the business is its own entity, it has its own liabilities, and it can help to protect your personal assets. If something were to go. So when should we start considering meeting with somebody to create an LLC? I think you should create an LLC like as soon as you're starting your business.
That's my personal opinion, but I'm also maybe a little more risk averse than some. I think it can also depend on where you are. In your career, if you have built up a lot of assets and you wanna make sure that everything is protected, and LLC is absolutely something that you are going to want to start, I think that for a lot of folks in your audience, the Dietitian bosses, you are.
In many cases, a licensed professional. So you wanna make sure that you are protecting yourself. And so that's why I think an LLC can be really important. And typically they are fairly simple to set up. Usually it's gonna be in whatever state you live in, go to your Secretary of State website. Most of the time you can file everything right online, so it can be relatively easy.
And is it expensive to start an LLC? Are there any downsides to this? My best answer for that is it might be expensive depending on where you live. So each state charges different fees for it. So for example, I'm in Nevada. I think we're somewhere between four and $500 to initially set something up in California, for example, it's.
Not super expensive to set up. It might be like $120, but they have an annual fee of about 800 per year. So for a lot of folks, it's when you are starting to make money or when you are getting ready to put products out there that are going to start generating profit for you, that you really wanna consider whether or not that makes sense for you.
And just check your local Secretary of State and you can typically find whatever the fees are going to be for. Great. That's such great advice. And do we need a lawyer to establish an llc or you mentioned that we could go online and file. Is this something we can do ourselves? So what kind of professionals do we need involved in this process?
Honestly, I think it's something that you can file yourself as long as you're comfortable doing it. If it's going to make you procrastinate the idea of doing it yourself, then I want you to go to somebody else who can do it. Sometimes I know accountants offer it as a service, otherwise you can usually go to a lawyer.
There are other, I think there's other companies that do justLLC formation, so they may be an option for you as well if you're going into something with a partner. Then, yes, I want you to use a lawyer, but if you are going to be the only person who is the owner of theLLC, it is usually something that's fairly simple to do right through the Secretary of State website.
But like I said, if you go in there and you're like, eh, I don't know what any of this means, I don't like, and you start to feel that sort of fear and hesitation, talk to somebody, talk to a lawyer, talk to whomever, and get that off your plate. You don't need to become overwhelmed by that process for. Yeah, and you mentioned that whys to use a lawyer if we're going into partnership with somebody else, how is that different than starting a business by ourselves as an entrepreneur?
I think where it's important if you have a partner is you are going to need. Particles or bylaws, depending upon what you're setting up. So assuming that you're setting up an LLC, you're gonna need an operating agreement. That is the document that governs your business and how the businesses managed.
The percentage that everybody gets, and the part that nobody really wants to think about is what happens if the business breaks up or somebody wants to leave, somebody wants to sell their interest. That operating agreement is going to help you. Figure all of that out ahead of time, and that's where I think it's really important to talk to an attorney who can help you to draft that document to make sure that everybody has the coverage that they need.
Amazing. Thank you so much. I think that clears up so many questions for our Dietitian bosses, and I hope that helps relieve some fear that you might have listening to this if you're having some fear about taking that next step in creating an LLC for your business, or you're confused about that. I hope this.
Helps you take that next step forward with confidence and with peace of mind. So we're gonna switch topics here a little bit. Can you share with us about what is intellectual property? Because I think people jump forward into, oh, I need to copyright, I need to trademark this without understanding the broader umbrella.
Creating intellectual property within their businesses, whether that's content courses, handouts, we have so many different things. Can you share with us what follows under that intellectual property umbrella? Sure. Intellectual property is a really broad umbrella term for. If you will, products of the mind, so it's going to be copyright, trademarks, patents, which are inventions and trade secrets usually for the type of businesses that we are looking at and the things that you mentioned when we're talking about content and courses and handouts and downloadables, that type of thing.
We're talking about two pieces, and that's copyright and trademarks. I think that sometimes they get a little bit confused, so it's really important to be able to differentiate between those in a copy. It is a set of rights that's granted to the creator of an original work that is fixed in a tangible medium and talk about some legalese, right?
Like that is one of those things where it's like, what on earth did I just say? So an original work means that you are. The original creator, you are not taking somebody else's work. You are not creating a variation of somebody else's original work. It is something that you have created and it has to be fixed in a tangible medium, and that is really important to know because you can't copyright.
An idea what you can copyright is the expression of that idea. So you can do photos, videos, written texts, you know, books, things along those lines. Things that aren't eligible for copyright are things like ideas, systems, processes, titles, name short phrases, slogans, or things like recipes, like a mirror listing of ingredients or the.
So it's really important to kind of keep that in mind when you're thinking about things. Cuz I've had people come to me and say, I have created a four step method for the following nutrition area. Whatever niche somebody is in, can I copyright that? It's like not necessarily. We're not gonna copyright that.
We're gonna talk about trademarks potentially, but it may be that they have created a video or a downloadable e-book, something like that, and it may be that the e-book, the expression of that idea is what is copyrightable. When you're a copyright owner, you get certain exclusive rights. So I like to look at, I'm a pen person.
I don't know if anybody else out there is like a pen person, but I love them. I'm an office supply person. Totally. So let's imagine you've got your pen case with all of your favorite pens in it. Your copyright is the entire your case with all the pens. And then each individual pen would be an exclusive, right?
So it's the right to reproduce or copy the work to prepare derivative works, which could be adaptations, things like that. The right to distribute the work to sell and market it, to perform the work if it's something like a song or to display the work. So each one of those writes. Part of your overall copyright, and those are really important to know because you can give away all your rights.
You can give away one or two of your rights. You can give somebody the right to do something temporarily, which is typically called a license to use. Part of your copyright. So for example, you may have a copyright, I'm gonna use the ebook example just cuz that's really easy. So you may give somebody the right to resell that on their own platform.
If you do that, you are giving them a license to resell, but you still have. All of those copyright rights. So that's what's really gonna be important. One thing that I think is going to be particularly important to remember when it comes to copyrights, especially about courses, is if you have someone else who is working with you.
On creating content, copyright automatically falls to the creator of that content. So it, let's say you've got a designer who made beautiful slides or did your design for your e-book. So you wanna make sure that you take that copyright and that they have assigned those rights to you. So I think that's one of the pieces that's really important.
And then the last thing I wanna mention about copyright rights, particularly when it comes to courses and things that you are selling, is make sure you are clear about your ownership and how people can use your content. So put a copyright notice on it. You know the copyright symbol, and it usually has the year in your name.
Make sure you're saying how they can use it. So, If you're selling something, it might be that they can use it for their personal individual use, but they don't get to resell it. This does not mean that they can distribute it or share it with other people. Just make sure that part is clear. Any questions on copyright before I move to trademarks?
Well, a couple of questions. I think when we're using platforms like Teachable and some of the other platforms like that, distribute courses on our behalf, they have their users sign agreements to not distribute as part, not sign agreement, but that's part of your access. Rights to it. So do we need a separate copyright and to when someone purchase our course to notify them how to use the course or because they're a member of that platform and that platform should be.
Somehow protecting their content creators, we can rely on that kind of protection for, I think that's a really, really good question. And I personally think that if you are selling a product that you own, you should have terms that go along with that. So typical purchase policies, you know, here's how you buy it.
You're gonna create an account, do you offer returns? You know, like that type of thing. But within that you can also say, here's how you can use the content. Here's your license. To use that. So I think that's a really important thing for the person who owns that content to include so that it's clear and it's set out in those terms.
Thank you for that. Mm-hmm. really, really important. So yeah, tell us a difference about trademark and copy rate and how we can pursue trademarking our business. Our. Absolutely. So unlike the copyright, which protects, as I said, the expression of the idea, a trademark is something that represents your brand in commerce.
It's something that consumers associate with your products. So it can be a service mark to represent your service. It can be a name, it can be anything that represents you. So I think that you can think of it as a symbol. I like to pick on Nike because. Everybody knows Nike at this point, so the word Nike would be their company name.
That's something that they've got trademarked phrases like Just Do It, which has become such a well-known tagline that is a trademark for them. The swoosh symbol that is a trademark for them. You can even some of their. Other companies have non-traditional trademarks like Play-Doh has their smell trademarked.
The NBC Chime are a trademark. Tiffany Blue from the Tiffany boxes. Those are all trademarks. So the key for trademarks is there can't be a likelihood of confusion between you and another mark, so it has to be different than what other people are using. And your mark has to be distinctive. So you couldn't call something like, Weight loss program and expect to get a trademark on it.
That's just not distinctive. That is really there to talk. Exactly what it is, right? So you have to have something that's a little bit more the term fanciful, which is like made upwards, which they love. Think of Xerox for that. Think of Apple for a computer. You don't think of Apple for a computer, except now we do, right?
Or it can be suggestive. It just can't be overly descriptive. Then you can file for the trademark with the trademark office. From there, you get to use the registration mark, and that Mark really does become your exclusive show to consumers, that it is yours. It represents your brand in the stream of commerce.
What's really important to know is when you are. Getting ready to launch something, please make sure you're looking at the trademark office website. Do a quick search and make sure that you are not, that somebody else isn't already using it, because I promise it's a lot easier to have something unique for yourself that might be trademarkable and to not get a cease and desist after the fact.
And I'll give you the link. It's TM search.uspto.gov. I'll send that to you so that way you can put it in the show notes. Fairly easy to just go in and take a quick look just to make sure no one else is using it. When you're thinking about those names, Thank you so much for adding that because it's, as creators, we want our content and our creations to be respected and we also wanna be respectful and not step on other creator's toes out there, or get a letter saying that we owe somebody a bunch of money because we infringed on their trademark.
So thank you so much for that. Is there any last thoughts that you have on these two topics for our Dietitian? No, my only thing is just again, don't get overwhelmed if you have questions on it, that is the best time to reach out to a lawyer and say, I wanna make sure I completely understand where I am going with this.
And we can answer your questions and it's important, but again, don't let it become completely overwhelming so that it makes it so that you won't take action in your business. Well, thank you so much for adding your expertise and sharing with us how we can create our businesses in a way that our assets are protected, our intellectual property is protected, and that we're not crossing boundaries into other people's protected intellectual property.
That makes us really great business owners and entrepreneurs, and we always appreciate your. If you have questions on this content on trademarking copyright, intellectual property,LLC, this is what we cover for our rebellion members. And you're also welcome to post in our social media or below this podcast page any questions that you have.
Cause we're here to support you moving forward as a Dietitian boss, moving your business to reach more people and support more people. Thank you so much for tuning in, and we'll see you in the next episode. We are so excited to offer you support in our various programs. If you identify as a beginner and you're looking to lay down the foundations, our society program might be a great fit for you.
I encourage you to go to Dietitianboss.com under group coaching and apply for our experience, our transformative experience based off of my proprietary system called the Dietitian Boss Method. Additionally, we offer a higher level program called Executive to help you hire and manage a staff as you expand and scale your program, whether you're offering a membership course, group programming, private coaching, or a combination of various different offerings.
We're here to help you on your journey with developing processes and implementing the operational foundation that you need to reach your goals. A lot of our clients wanna work 20 hours or less a week, and we're so proud to say that we've helped them achieve that goal. And you'll hear their stories on this podcast.
Make sure to stay tuned and apply if you're looking for support to get there faster and meet some colleagues along the way who share your same growth mindset.
