intellectual property

Intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets) is one of the most valuable assets of any business, whether it be a start-up or large multi-national. Business people, however, who are already overextended, usually don't have time to learn intellectual property basics or how to utilize intellectual property to maximize profits. Mike Lechter's book is the first to cut through the jargon and explain in plain English how to recognize and protect valuable intellectual property. The reader receives a solid, working knowledge of all aspects of intellectual property law complete with examples. A powerful business tool for corporate professionals and entrepreneurs.

Frankly speaking, I am quite disappointed with this book.

When I bought this book, I had the impression that it is about the protection of intellectual capital. Also, I was attracted to the book because of an introduction by Robert Kiyosaki, whose work I am very familiar.

Although the book gives a broad brush about intellectual property (IP) protection from many different perspectives, and offers some useful guidelines to help protect your intellectual interests, it is somewhat incomplete as far as the protection of ideas or intellectual capital is concerned.

It does not give any specific illustration and/or example on how to protect your intellectual capital from the standpoint of goodwill, reputation, expertise, (especially accumulated practical skills), data and know-how...more specifically, your ideas and/or "working methodologies" which are embodied in products and services.

Take an example from the book, on page 58, under Utility Patent Protection, the author talked about:

"Business method is patentable if:

- it produces a useful, concrete, and tangible result; and
- it is novel and not obvious;

but the book stops short of giving specific business cases or product examples to illustrate this key point. This is, to me, intellectual capital, and I want to know how to protect it!

As a matter of fact, the author talked about how he came to know Robert Kiyosaki...from the CashFlow game. Funny enough, the author did not even bother to give any detailed account on the IP protection scheme pertaining to the game. Nothing at all, period. I thought this would have been a very appropriate subject, because of the need for the protection of intellectual capital behind the development of the game - and the gameplay procedure - from pirates.

The book listed a lot of other IP stuff, which were not covered in the book, but the author directed the reader to his website. For example, the author introduced his IP self-audit checklist, among other things, which sounds interesting. When I checked his website, I realised I had to fork out US$129/- to buy a CD-ROM containing the stuff.

My overall personal impression of the book is that both Michael Lechter and Robert Kiyosaki are using each other to sell each other's products and services! (which are well-illustrated on many end pages of the book!) The poor reader is expected to fork out more effort and money...maybe that's why the Rich Dad series of products are so lucrative for the author.

On the whole, this book falls short of my personal expectations. I am very disappointed with the author and also, Robert Kiyosaki.

To be fair to the author, I feel that the book, even though it is incomplete from my personal viewpoint, still provides a broad-brush about IP, - especially on copyrights, patents,and trademarks, - from many different perspectives.

This book was an extremely helpful book for me because of the fact that it covers so many different areas of intellectual property protection. Because it covers so much and so many different types of intellectual property protection, it is a book that really makes you think about all the possibilities. I like the fact that it is very broad. Considering that the book is written by an attorney who is bound by the rules of ethics not to disclose his client's confidential matters, I found the book to have ample specifics and examples of different types of intellectual property protection.

My personal impression is that it is a book that can help business owners looking to protect their intellectual property as well as those who are interested in a more scholarly approach. That is the genius of this book. It can be very useful to many different kinds of readers. I think that even a lot of attorneys who practice in different areas of the law would probably find this book extremely valuable. That is a great complement to the author.

As the title indicates, it makes you realize that your intellectual property is really your number one asset.