CE 308-INTELLECTIAL PROPERTY
Case Study 6: Developing Affordable Software for Small Business & Mary Engelbreit : Artist and Entrepreneur ď ľ
Submitted by: Antonio, Kim Mamauag, Pearl Martinez, Jirah
Submitted to: Tomas U. Ganiron Jr, PhD
Background
As a young girl, Mary just wanted to draw pictures and moved into her first “studio”.
Mary’s road to becoming a professional illustrator was full of unexpected twists and turns.
Mary learned a lot and managed to make a modest living, but she was not satisfied “drawing to order” for free-lance clients.
Licensing ď ľ
In 1977, newly wed and with enthusiastic encouragement from her husband, Phil Delano, she took her portfolio to New York City to try her luck at some well-known publishing houses.
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Within months, she had made her first licensing deal by selling three card designs for USD 150 and signed a short-term contract with another greeting card company.
Once Mary had shifted her talent and energy to greeting cards, success came quickly.
To launch her greeting card business, Mary borrowed USD 60,000 to cover the printing costs for 5,000 copies of each of the twenty designs she started out with.
Originality led to Mary’s success but it took time.
Although the range of Mary Engelbreit licensed products has continued to grow robustly, Mary and her staff are careful to make sure the growth is smart and deliberate as well.
Copyright
Mary is well aware that her creative work is protected by copyright and recommends that artists retain all rights to their work and copyright each design in their name once they are printed.
“Licensing entitles artists with copyrighted artwork to be paid a royalty.” she sums up.
Trademarks ď ľ
In 1988, Mary Engelbreit enterprises filed their first trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), registering "Mary Engelbreit" as a service mark.
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Since then, Mary Engelbreit enterprises have filed over 30 trademarks including:
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Mary Engelbreit®
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Leading the artful life®
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ME ink®
Branding ď ľ
Over the years, Mary has developed a strong brand image for her artwork.
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Licensing is such a crucial part of Mary’s business that her product development department created a specific system to process licensing requests and approvals.
Business Results
By 1986, Mary Engelbreit greeting cards had blossomed into a million-dollar-a-year business.
In 1995, she brought on Greg Hoffmann, long time friend and legal counsel, as Chief Executive Officer to run the business.
In 2001, Mary saw her original dream come true when she signed a contract to illustrate children's books for publishing giant HarperCollins.
"The Night Before Christmas"
Between 1996 and 2009, Mary was also editor-in-chief of the awardwinning creative lifestyle magazine. “Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion”
Over the years, Mary Engelbreit has shared her good fortune with a range of charitable organizations and worthy causes close to her heart.
In 2000, Mary launched a partnership with First Book, a nonprofit organization that delivers new books to low-income children.
Her contribution of a commemorative poster for the organization's "Make a Difference Day" event was a key factor in enabling them to deliver 2 million books to literacy groups for low-income children in 2000.
In 2000 and 2002, Mary Engelbreit was honored with the “Best Art License of the Year” awards at the Annual LIMA Gala & Awards Ceremony for the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA).
Also in the year 2000, she was listed as the second best-selling licensed property – second only to Winnie the Pooh.
Today, thousands of retailers sell Mary Engelbreit products to her countless fans, and Mary Engelbreit Studios continues to add new licensees and product categories.
References:
Amazon.com
Ebay.com
Pinterest.at
Calendars.com
Developing Affordable Software for Small Businesses
HSCO LLP, UK/Jordan ď ľ
As more people become connected, the Internet can be a vital tool to enrich their lives no matter where they are located.
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Websites today are far different than when the Internet first took off in the early 1990s .
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As the Internet has grown an entire industry has emerged for creating software applications for use in the Internet and Intranets (private networks).
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HSCO LLP (HSCO), a company started by a group of individuals from the Hashemite Kingfom of Jordan (Jordan) and based in the United Kingdom (UK), is one such company.
Research and development ď ľ
Launched in 2011, HSCO is made up of individuals with backgrounds in law, finance, project management, and computer programming and design.
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The SME primarily focuses on developing secure, scalable, and flexible solutions for growing businesses and SMEs throughout the world.
The company researched the Group’s needs and developed a secure application that organizes daily case work, linking it to an accounting system that HSCO also developed, seamlessly working in one web-based package.
The successful experience with the Group helped HSCO build a software portfolio, and as a result the company has successfully developed similar EMCs for other use cases and clients.
Copyright, trademarks, and domain names ďƒ’
Companies can rise and fall on the quality of their software, and copyright is the primary means to inhibit infringement.
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In the case of the EMC developed for the Group, an agreement was reached in which the Group owns a nonexclusive right to the software so they can access the source code to make any potential future changes
HSCO must also enter into agreements with its employees and consultants to determine which entity owns the copyright.
With roots in Jordan, HSCO also deems it important to protect its software in the country, which has a registration system through the National Library of the Jordanian Ministry of Culture.
Registration is free and can also be done Online, which makes it an easy and cost-effective solution for the company to register its copyrighted works in Jordan.
“HSCO must ensure that our software products are protected. To do so, we register them in the National Library [in Jordan] and make it a point to include our IP rights in all of our client agreements.”
A company’s brand image is an important part of its identity, and HSCO recognizes that protecting the company’s logo and slogan - Our solutions are available - is a valuable effort.
After the UK applications, HSCO can easily and cost-effectively seek protection in other countries through the Madrid system, an international trademark system managed by the International Bureau at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The SME owns the hscoweb.com domain name, through which it offers information about the company, its software, and services.
In addition, the company offers live examples of its software so potential customers can see it in action before they make a purchasing decision.
Commercialization
They work to commercialize products that meet the specific needs of an individual client.
The SME develops software applications for very specific purposes and needs.
The end software represents the product that HSCO sells, but it also includes access to all source code so their client can continue to develop or make necessary changes to it as they arise (although the source code itself is not sold).
Another feature of HSCO’s commercialization efforts is the development of software products that are not sold to be installed on a client’s IT infrastructure, but are sold on a subscription basis.
In 2014, HSCO was working on a web-based EMC application that will allow clients to have all of the functionality (and new features) of the EMC that was developed for the Michigan-based company, but without the need to install any applications.
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In addition, the SME provides consultation services to other SMEs on office organization and business development by providing or referring solutions to issues such as Web development and design, Ecommerce, and payroll products.
Business results ďƒ’
After only a few years in business, by 2014 HSCO was able to develop a successful product portfolio and gain a foothold in the domestic and international software development industries.
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According to the company, its EMC software has been well received and the SME has been able to break into North America, a leading IT market, and build on this success with the development and future commercialization of a subscription based product.
Overcoming risk, helping SMEs ď ľ
Developing a proven product portfolio in a few short years backed by copyright, the SME plans to continue to grow and develop positive solutions for SMEs and other customers throughout the world that would otherwise not have the means to create or access such software.