Turning Intellectual Capital into Revenue, with Sharon Toerek

July 27, 2022

Episode 59:

Sharon Toerek, Principal of Toerek Law, focuses her law practice on helping professionals in the advertising, marketing, and creative industries monetize their intellectual capital and manage the legal risks of their work. She joins me on the Progressive Agency podcast to describe how she helps agencies protect their intellectual property.

Hear insights about:

  • Why it’s vital agencies negotiate good, solid, strong contracts with their clients
  • How Toerek Law counsels agencies on IP protection issues
  • The ever-evolving landscape of data privacy regulations, why they continue to change, and how they impact social media marketing
  • When growing agencies need to take advice on protecting their IP
  • Why intellectual property is the underpinning of everything that an agency does – and the importance of investing in good advice
  • Why Sharon advises that agencies put restrictive covenants in place in their handbooks
  • The difference between non-solicitation and non-compete covenants and their practical applications
  • Hot buttons that agency owners should be aware of, including the double-edged sword of being a specialist agency

Intellectual Property Protection

A huge pain point for agencies who do new business by pitching for contracts is how to protect their work, concepts, or ideas during a relationship’s new business development phase. Sharon Toerek explains how Toerek Law helps agencies understand the legal consequences of the campaigns that they’re working on for their clients, including counseling on marketing regulations or highlighting data privacy issues in social media influencer campaigns.

Intellectual-Property

The Triangle Approach

Sharon explains the importance of protecting your intellectual property (IP) as a triangle. At one point in the triangle, agencies have their content, which is subject to copyright protection; at the next point sits brand, which is a source identifier protectable by trademarks, and at the third point are transactions, or how agencies convey the rights to the work they do for clients. On the show, Sharon shares how her firm helps clients navigate these three issues.

Investing in IP Protection

Intellectual property is the underpinning of everything that an agency does. It’s where they make their revenue, and it’s their most critical asset. Sharon shares why it’s well worth investing in good advice on how to protect your IP and why you will end up farther along financially if you invest the time and energy and protecting and understanding the principles of IP protection and embedding them in your agency’s culture.

How to Connect with Sharon Toerek:

About Sharon Toerek:

Sharon Toerek is the Principal of Toerek Law, where she focuses her law practice on helping professionals in the advertising, marketing, and creative industries monetize their intellectual capital and manage the legal risks of their work.

Sharon provides proactive, strategic counsel to marketing agencies on legal issues they continually face in their work, including agency-brand contracts, social media, content marketing legal compliance, and trademark and copyright protection.

Sharon also created the Legal + Creative Agency Protection System, a legal toolkit for marketing agencies. In 2018, she launched The Innovative Agency, a podcast on innovation for marketing agency leaders.

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