Patent Pending, Trademarks, Copyright, Trade Secrets?

These are terms that I have always heard about, but never really understood.  I had the pleasure of meeting with Christopher Haigh, Patent Attorney with IPXtract (www.ipxtract.com) here in Chicago.  What a fascinating, intense, challenging job!  Chris is great at it, representing those inventors and firms who need to “get that patent” done and no longer pending! He has done some tremendous work in this area, approaching almost two decades of such! WOW!  He educated me on the differences between patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.  This is relevant as I work with small businesses in Chicago to implement small business marketing systems. One of the steps in our process is to “package solutions” and many times that is accomplished via trademarks, copyrights, etc.  Chris, thanks again for the education! 

VA Loans…More than appropriate given what Veterans have done for our country!

Claude Hosack-Ehinger, Loan Officer, Vision Mortgage Group, (www.visionloan.com/claude) educated me about VA Loans…having never served in the military, but with a father who served in the Marines during WWII, I have always appreciated (and probably not as much as I should) what our military veterans have done for our country!  WOW!  I did not realize that veterans are eligible for 100% loans and minimal, if any, closing costs!  Fantastic!  Given what they have done for our country, it is more than appropriate that they receive such a benefit….Please give Claude a call or e-mail him @ claude@visionloan.com for more info…I reviewed with him as well how we are building small business marketing systems throughout Chicagoland using the Duct Tape Marketing Process…Thanks again, Claude! :-)

The Beatles: Did they know anything about marketing or did they “let it be?”

The Beatles are my “all-time” favorite music group…this picture is an alternate version of the famous Let It Be Cover…their last album! :-(  But…as I “muse music” here on a Friday afternoon, this picture struck me given its somewhat slightly different look than the original cover…It caught my attention…many times in marketing, it is the “simple things” done differently that catch our attention…With Duct Tape Marketing, we implement small business marketing systems in Chicago and Naperville to help buinesses do “things slightly differently” to gain attention and, ultimately, have clients pursue them and engage their services. 

Amcore Bank…Community Bank in a Big City?

Phil Aderton, Commercial Relationship Manager, Amcore Bank, (www.amcore.com) and I recently met for breakfast.  He shared with me the “community bank” concept of Amcore Bank…When I first “heard” the concept, it made no sense to me i.e. how could a bank in a “big city” (such as Chicago) be a community bank?  My idea of the community bank was the small-town banker, who knew everyone in town, and lent on the basis of a gentlemen’s handshake…turns out, Amcore is basing their business growth on getting their customers connected to other Amcore customers to assist each other in ways simply beyond banking i.e. going to the hometown banker who used to point you in a direction if the small town businessperson (e.g. the farmer) needed assistance with business challenges beyond banking-related issues…very interesting concept in today’s world of, many times, not high-touch, but high-tech!  They are building a community business support system just as we are building small business marketing systems in Chicago and Naperville!  Systems…what a great idea!

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