Hope for the best, but plan for the worst

Hands up who watches Dragon’s Den?  Over the years it seems the dragons have got more IP savvy, and I credit the programme with making people more aware of IP.

It is the key to every business – the content that brought success.  It could be a contact list, a recipe, a product, who knows.  But the key point is this – you need to know WHAT you have, and WHAT is worth money to others.  Most importantly, if you are engaging others to help you then you HAVE to agree what happens with the fruit of that collaboration.  I am in the midst of trying to unravel a particularly horrible Gordian knot created simply because they didn’t think hard in the beginning.  I am constantly saying this line to my clients:

Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Hope that they are as genuine as they seem when you met.  Hope that fairness will rule throughout.  But plan for them to go into liquidation, try to deprive you of assets and do all manner of underhand things.  They just might…