Tweet

States rights

Written by: Seth Godin

Article Overview: If you own a web page, you really owe it to yourself and to your users to pay attention to state.

States rights

If you own a web page, you really owe it to yourself and to your users to pay attention to state.

Don't treat everyone the same. First time visitors want something different than repeaters. Loyal customers want to see something different from the masses.

Get your IT person to show you how to divide the world into states. Then start from scratch and make a different experience for everyone.

[PS years ago, at Yoyodyne, we had a wannabe competitor who kept stealing our ideas. We programmed the site to recognize traffic from their site and put up all sorts of fake announcements and stuff, just to throw them off. You can get really specific if you want!]

Related Articles
  California Labor Laws and the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Movement
  Prosperity Bill of Rights
  What are the Different Types of Resell Rights?
  The Right To Choose
  Franchising - a short history

Article Tags: all sorts, competitor, loyal customers, repeaters, scratch, traffic, web page, yoyodyne



Related Forum Posts
Re: English TV Programme - The example in the Apprentice was signing exclusive rights to a company that would ONLY have rights to sell there product even thou they didnt have permission and could generate more revenue from other companies - but to close the deal they guaranteed exclusive rights to a small company not looking at the bigger picture. Again on TV show, just wanted results but in a real life scenario could of worked a better deal for the longterm.
Investors Is a Better Way to Go - [quote="Electron":3oydan6y]Thanks alot guys, I think I put everything on halt, I am too exhausted for all of this, I should just be wearing the inventor's hat and not be worried about all of this money managment and patent legislatiion involving a shre holder agreement . But since it directly involves me I did make an effort. I think I will assign leave the patent rights assigned to me and my current partner that I have been with for 12 years and thats that. When sharing the patent rights with too many individuals it gets too complicated for nothing! Now can I be blunt about this once ad for all. How can an inventor raise money for his invention without sharing the rights to his invention? With regards Robert[/quote:3oydan6y] I would definitely go with investors instead of partners. If someone else helped you create the invention, that's different. But, I would try to find investors who have limited impact on your daily operations or creation and try to make it so that they get a return on sales, not a piece of you. Chris
Have a solid business plan and do your homework - Is it Worth It? Not all intellectual property rights may be of significant value to a business. It is easy enough to patent yourself into nbankruptcy and, as pointed out above, most patents never make a significant return on the investment. Therefore, it is necessary to review all aspects of the company and assign priorities to the rights according to their value. When working with start-up companies, I counsel them to first have a solid business plan laying out exactly how they will get a retrun on their investment. Too often, people mistakenly believe that once you have a patent, checks will roll in. When I was in-house managing a large protfolio of patents that came out of over 800 inventions, exactly one set of technology was a blockbuster hit. While some businesses may choose to compete in the market without obtaining patents or aggressively protecting trademark rights, a competitor in a market may be working toward reducing the competitive advantage of a business by securing substantial patents, trademarks or other intellectual property rights. It is quite common for at least one player in a multi-firm market to follow such a strategy in an attempt to force competitors to either take licenses or stop making or using the proprietary technology. Such tactics are frequently successful in securing a superior competitive position. Can You Use It? It is one thing to own IP rights; it is another thing to be able to conduct a business without infringing third party IP rights. Thus, the fact that a company has a patent for a product does not give it the right to make the product. The unfettered right to use, make or sell certain technology, or to use trademarks or material subject to copyrights, is often crucial to the health of any business. If a competitor holds patents, trademarks, copyrights or other related rights that dominate a successful product or service of a business, the profitability of a business, and even the ability to survive, may be at stake. Thus it is often important to conduct independent IP searches in areas of relevance to the company’s business to identify third party patents, trademarks, or copyrights that may be of importance. Preferably, a company will periodically monitor the intellectual property rights held by competitors. Hope this helps, Stephen Patent Baristas
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - Obama intends to do that... but I'm very much afraid McCain wants to do that as well. There's very little to choose between the two presidential candidates, I'm afraid, at least when it comes to the Illegals situation. But really, you have to blame the government for letting this get out of hand to begin with. If laws had been enforced decades ago, we wouldn't have this problem now. But businesses profited by using illegals, so the government looked the other way... Not that I begrudge [i:1w0ftrfu]anyone [/i:1w0ftrfu]the opportunity to come to the USA for a better life. Just do it legally... Or if you [i:1w0ftrfu]are [/i:1w0ftrfu]illegal, don't start demanding rights that only legals deserve! (Then again, it's the ACLU that's working on citizenship rights for illegals!) Tough situation, and I really don't see a solution that's equitable...
Re: help wanted in u.k. - sorry for lack of input to post up until now to be honest i am not really a business person, and all the business terminology etc. disheartens me, What i need is someone to take a personal interest and share the believe in my invention and to take the patenting or manafacturing process on a little further, there is nothing worse i think than people trying to talk about business when it is something they know little about, (people often have no option i know) but i avoid that. My patent pending needs to be filed in the states before nov 2008. $2000 dollars i got as a quote (high i think) I am broke but i have got these valuable (i believe valuable) patenting rights. 2000 is not a big sum if it were to lead to patent rights in usa, "money for old rope" as they say brendan


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Leading from Authenticity is a Beautiful Thing

Join Conversations Politely, Part 1

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.