How do I create a training course without the worries about infringement?
I created a product and don't really want to create a course because it is a proprietary information and would not like it to be distributed. So I am sitting on it and not sure what to do. Action book and one-on-one training is a possibility. Please advise.
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Oct 3, 2020
Hi Yolanda,
While I understand your concerns (we are about to launch our own educational product) I would urge you to consider some options that would allow you to offer an entry level course behind a "safeguard" while you can focus on one-on-one training for a premium membership level
These two platforms allow you to manage memberships and you control the level of access each user has:
https://teachable.com/
https://kajabi.com/
Best of luck!
Feb 17, 2016
As an Artist I understand your concerns with this so trust me when I say DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!!!!! People can bootleg the latest CD out but everyone still knows the Artist. If you have something THAT big that people will love that much for it to spread like a wild fire and be worth bootlegging.... LET THEM!!!!... The money you'd "lose" won't come near the amount a competent marketing & promo firm would charge to blast it. What you should do is line up more material so once the knowledge spreads and people get hip to it and start applying it you'll actually have a market of millions of people thirsty for what YOU create.
Seeing that you're the expert on the matter at hand.... the leaches and "monkey see monkey doers" can only hang on to your heels for so long before the market clings solely to YOU...as YOU are the true source of what they want. People bootleg every movie to hit hollywood.... but that doesn't stop them from making millions n millions of dollars in the box office.... that doesn't stop the actors and actresses from getting their million dollar checks. Imagine if George Lucas never released Star Wars out of fear of someone bootlegging his books and movies.
The fact that you have KNOWLEDGE to share makes it even better because YOUR material is going to help humanity grow in some way shape and form, which generates new opportunities for you to dominate something else that doesn't yet exist because they haven't created it as a result of your information yet.
If you sit on it too long humanity may shift into a direction where it's no longer relevant or useful.... or someone else may come up with the same type of solution and put THEIR content out and bring about that culture shift. You could teach people one on and and THEY could go out here after each lesson and charge somebody else to learn it from them.... if you want to look at it from that perspective. So there's never a safe way to avoid it, just brand the crap out of yourself with it so no matter how far n wide people take it everyone will inevitably see YOU and know it's YOU. They're not going to go through the trouble of blotting out your face or putting a black box over your website when it pops up in the video... so they can't take YOU out of it. If they decide to do their own videos teaching the information it will be in words that come from their perspective so it won't be the same as yours. And if this happens.... so what... LET THEM!!!!... in fact if they happen to have a way of putting it where it reaches people's understanding so effectively that it over shadows you, come up with ways to use t hem as a tool for getting your information out. There's always a way to play off of these things if keep an open mind. :)
Feb 7, 2016
Hi Yolanda,
May I suggest that while one has to make sensible choices, coming from fear will never get far, let alone help people grow in a significant way.
It is your brilliance that your pour into your content - your authenticity and USP is what will sell this product and if it is good people will come for more.
Feb 6, 2016
Well there is no way to avoid proprietary infringement , I think if you want to grow your business ,you will have to leave your feers behind your back . lots of people are working in the same field , you are facing lots of competion for the same products , without fear let others know your product , your name , and your business .will grow accordingly .
Feb 4, 2016
In this world nothing is unique. Whatever ideas that comes into a persons head has already happened earlier too which we may feel we are conceptualizing. So its better we get on with our act then keep thinking that our idea is unique and if we come in the open others may try to infringe into it and use it for their benefit. One well known business man from India opened my eyes with his golden words...........Ideas are no one's monopoly. Since then I have been putting my ideas into effect as I know what idea has come into my mind today is from the knowledge I had gathered over the years in Marketing and Sales field and it may have come into someone's mind before or may come into someone's mind if I don't capitalize on it first.
Feb 4, 2016
Sure, you can lock lots of "information" down but, in the end, once it's in someone else's head... it's "out there!"
If you are concerned about the unauthorized use/dissemination of your information, you can ask each "consumer" to sign an NDA first. Using pay-per-attend classes might help.
Feb 14, 2016
That's exactly what my plan is. Pay-per-attendance. I am glad you agree
Thanks
Feb 4, 2016
Hello I would think that you would like you information to go viral and to do this I would create a blog for this information and use it to earn money, if done the correct way this can be a Goldmine.
Feb 14, 2016
True I need it to go viral andalready have the blog with the optin page. I am planning to only collect info of the interested party and do one-on-one discovery session and then close it if the right match is found. The delivery of the info is the problem. How do I do that without the risk of share. Video as suggested by Michael and membership site or pay-per-attendance. Huh
Feb 4, 2016
Yolanda, here to help. You know the longest journey starts with the first step. It's tough out there to introduce new products and services. Competition is severe. But people are looking for better ideas and concepts. But here are some steps and thoughts to help.
Unfortunately you can't do anything if you are not moving. Taking steps. Baby steps. Moving forward. Do you have a real plan with action steps. Timeline? Do you have other ideas?
You may want legal counsel to protect yourself and your product/service/training program; please take the first or next step today.
Don't keep sitting on it if you have a good product/service.
This is a little off subject but do you watch "Shark Tank" on ABC? I taught 79 semesters of Business Strategies and Marketing plus Globla Marketing in several MBA programs at USC, LMU, Ucla, Pepperdine, CSUN and others.
I learn everyday. "Shark Tank" and "Beyond the Tank" have really good ideas for entrepreneurs and others. It or these two shows have really good ideas on product development and execution, plus deal making to help you as well as asking questions on Mosaic. Here to help. Best of luck.
Feb 14, 2016
I completely agree that Shark is a tremendous resource. I did learn a lot from Damian.... I do have a plan and I am working with a coach on launching it in April. The only part I am sitting on is the delivery... It's a product/ service training and it can be copied... I am protected with a trademark office on one level but can't protect the method because it can be modified and delivered as similar product/service.
I thought video training or maybe an action book with vague steps is the way to do it. One-on-one training is expensive but it maybe the only way for now until I build the reputation . Later I could create a retreat or something of that sort to manage the time and the sales.
Thank you
Feb 4, 2016
The dark side:
If your content is worthy of sharing it "will" be shared, no matter what format it is in. As soon as you get into MPEG, PDF and MP3 formats, you are basically putting a "share me" sign on your product. Trust me, I know. Stern legal copyright warnings etc are somewhat helpful, but in most cases do not have much effect if someone is in the business of being cool on black hat forums, where they get points for sharing products that normally cost big bucks.
The brighter side:
You could make it harder (unattractive) to redistribute your course by creating a streaming video only course, and upload this content to sites where the user has to pay a fee to access the course. This is of course is much more work to create and setup, but in the end, your worries will be a bit lessened.
Short version: Your products will most likely be shared.
Suggestion: Always embed enough marketing material inside your product, with links that lead back to your site, mailing list, or another product / service of yours. This way when it does get shared, you may at least benefit from it. Accept the fact that people do share, but definitely don't let that fact deter you from being creative and offering your ideas / products / services to the world.
Feb 4, 2016
I would recommend providing training on any product you create. Your customers may just want it, or they may need it, depending on the type and complexity of the product. You can make sure to distribute any training materials only to customers/users (rather than posting them to a public web site), and make sure you use a copyright on the product. Chances are, you won't need to worry about infringement with training on a proprietary product, but limiting distribution and using copyright will help.
Feb 4, 2016
If you remain stuck on worrying about that... then you will never grow your business, expertise, etc... Consider the library or a book store - there are tons of books, courses, etc. with similar content; some of it a near copy of another. No one wants it to happen, but it does. Yet consider the number of ambitious and self-initiating people, who would take the time to copy your content, package it and put it out there for consumption. Being someone who also has high value content... the number is few. Fortunately, though unfortunately, people are lazy.
If you need to, slap copyrights and TM all over it.. so then at least you have something to fight back with. But the only person you are hurting by not packaging it up (uniquely and different), is you and the consumer.
Feb 3, 2016
Yolanda: I assume the product you created is in the beauty space based on your profile. If the content is focused on this area you may want to consider using some of the content to generate leads for your product (i.e. content marketing). If you go down this path, I would also suggest you look into Taboola and OutBrain as a means of promoting your content. You may find that the value of the content is in driving higher sales of your product. Another avenue you might want to consider is developing a secure membership site where individuals can pay a membership fee to access the content.
Just some food for thought.
Feb 14, 2016
The membership site is what I thought of but still not sure of the sharing aspect. I like the idea of content marketing.... I can do that first and do one-on-one training. I realize that this option will limit my sales at first but I can learn a lot from this form of selling the information.
Thank you
Feb 3, 2016
Hi Yolanda it sure is tough to have something of value and be concerned someone else may infringe but let me ask you this- is what you have unique enough (content-wise) to permit infringement? And yet another perspective, if the content can be infringed upon, is your delivery unique enough to mitigate that? Answer these questions, then we can revisit your concerns.
Michael I am marketing to professionals and uniqueness may not get enough here since it can be modified ... Yes I agree I need to go past that fear mode