Intellectual Property

My Business of Art class had an excellent lecture last Friday delivered by the teacher and it revealed her knowledge and grasping of the concepts involved in legally protecting your art and you as an artist.
What you create is called 'intellectual property'. Protecting your property involves copyrights and trademarks, and a lot more. I am not going to reveal the details of the lecture--that is probably copyrighted by 'Teach' and I know she doesn't make available her PowerPoint slides. Just our fast scribbled notes survive.
A lot of the aspects of being a successful artist involve spending time and doing things we don't want to do. We just want to spend our time creating art.
Not creating a business.
But the two must go hand in hand.
So, in your pursuit of a successful art career, I hope YOU don't have to spend too much time learning about:

• 'Cease and Desist'
• Intellectual Property
• uspto.gov
• 'Look and Feel' lawsuits
• trademark infringement
• 'tangible expression'
  
• trade secrets
  
• trade dress

Maybe Mother was right, after all. Maybe I should have been a Lawyer.