Ep #9: Top Trademark and Copyright Tips with Mark Leonard

Do you ever feel overwhelmed with everything you need to do with a food blog? Between the recipe development, food photography, editing tools, social media sharing, and SEO tactics, you’re putting in the overtime hours. But add on top of that copyright and trademark law which can be an important, and sometimes overlooked, topic for food bloggers, and you might be ready to call it quits. But don’t put your mouse away just yet. Today’s interview is with Mark Leonard, an attorney who works with online clients (including food bloggers), shares his insight on Top Trademark and Copyright Tips for Food Bloggers.

We’re so pleased to share with you today’s podcast, an interview with Mark Leonard on trademarking and copyrighting tips for food bloggers. It’s a topic that a lot of food bloggers put off until tomorrow, when they hope to have more time to deal with it. Oftentimes procrastination is the result of a lack of knowledge. You can’t start when you don’t even know where to begin!

We know this is such an in important topic for bloggers so we created a brief Copyright and Trademark Guide just for you. Click below to download a copy for yourself!

So, that’s why we invited Mark on the show – to talk about the kinds of legal issues that food bloggers need to look out for. Mark talks about more than just copyright and intellectual property too. We go through other legal issues that food bloggers might face. For example, if you’re signing a contract with a designer to develop your site, it’s good to look at the small print. The same goes for a contract for a sponsored post. It’s good to understand what to look for, or to hire a professional to help you do that, before signing on the underscored line.

Any business that you can imagine, including bloggers, has intellectual property issues, whether they know it or not. — Mark Leonard

This interview is part of the business side of food blogging. Yes, it’s fun to showcase food bloggers with tips on building their audience, writing, and food photography, but having your legal bases covered is an important step too.

Featured Content – Trademark and Copyright Tips for Food Bloggers with Mark Leonard

Here are some of the highlights of my discussion with Mark:

• How Mark got his start as an attorney and why he developed an interest in copyright and trademarking
• The number one issue with small businesses is the need to address relationships with vendors, particularly web site developers
• The ins and outs of registering your trademark
• Understanding what things about your site can and cannot be copyrighted
• How to know whether or not your recipes can they be copyrighted
• We talk about important steps to keep your site protected over time
• Legal implications that are important to know about e-commerce for a food blogger
• Aside from the tax implications, we talk about the business side of creating a legal entity for food bloggers
• Specifically, we talk about some of the steps involved in becoming an LLC or S-corp
• The importance of having a privacy policy or disclosure statement on your blog
• Mark is a foodie and you’ll know this is true when he talks about his favorite online resources.

Show Notes

This episode includes references to several resources you might find interesting. Here they are:

• Learn more about today’s guests, Mark Leonard on his site Davis and Leonard.
• Mark talks about the steps involved in getting your site trademarked. Here’s the link to the US Patent and Trademark Office.
• Mark’s article What Every Blogger Needs to Know About FTC Guidelines on the PR Newswire
• Some of Mark’s favorite online resources are: Simply Recipes, Hunter Angler Gardner Cook, Leite’s Culinaria, Fine Cooking, and Cooks Illustrated. Wow – Mark really is a foodie!
• Why not give Mark a shout-out on Twitter or LinkedIn and say thanks for the Chopped Podcast interview

Announcements

1. Learn about future Chopped Podcast episodes by subscribing to the ChoppedCon newsletter. Just add your email in the subscribe section at the bottom of this page. You’ll be glad you did!
2. Our next podcast interview is with Ali Ebright of the blog Gimme Some Oven and we’re talking about the Dangers of Comparison. Ali shares some amazing tips on how to fend off the negative feelings that comes after comparing our food blog to others. You’re gonna love it!

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