Community Empowerment Matters

When growing a business, entrepreneurs are often concerned with how to best protect their creations and ideas. While trademark, copyright and patent protection are commonly used to protect intellectual property the benefits of trade secret protection should not be overlooked. Whether a business is trying to protect a food recipe, cosmetics formula, or list of important customers, trade secret protection can be an effective option.    What is a Trade Secret A trade secret is any “secret formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, process, or other information” [1] that an owner has made reasonable efforts to keep secret and which gives that owner an economic advantage over competitors. There is no limit on the form that a trade secret may take. For example, something can still qualify as a trade secret even if it can be retained in one’s memory. [2] Unlike a trademark or patent, trade secret protection does not require any filing or registration with a state or

  Non-Profits Frequently Disclose Inadequate Information Regarding Social Returns In the United States, people donate billions of dollars each year to non-profits. [1]   So the funding for non-profits, as a whole, across the country, does not entirely appear to be inadequate.   Yet a core issue for many non-profits is often just that—a struggle to obtain sufficient financing. [2]   Part of the problem is that those willing to contribute to non-profits have little information about which entities provide the most social value. [3]   The donor may not know which non-profit is ingenious with their current resources, providing much needed help in their community and as such would be a great entity to donate to.   Consequently, those willing to contribute, in the aggregate, end up spreading around a small amount of money to a number of organizations, which results in successful non-profits receiving little funding as they are essentially just as likely to receive funding as a non-successf