Balancing Purpose and Profit: Protecting Your Ideas to Change the World with Gareth Benson

On this episode of the Lead With Purpose podcast host, Tze Ching Yeung talks to Gareth Benson, an IP lawyer, to talk about purpose and how he applies purpose to his work.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

If you are a purpose-driven business it is still a business & it has to run like one. You cannot change & save the world unless it is providing an opportunity for everyone, including yourself. So, it has to be treated as such. You can only amplify this brilliant idea & take it to the masses by employing millions of people.
Your ideas are valuable & they’re worthy of your protection. If you’re going to create an idea that changes the world then it’s got to be protected. It’s not incredibly expensive, you can get a trademark insured for around AUS$2,000, & that protects you for 10 years.
Mark Getty, of Getty Images, said that IP is the oil of the 21st century, except that it doesn’t harm the environment. Ideas are priceless but the opportunity to bring them to market needs to be respected because your ideas have value. The more you share your ideas with others, the more you treat them as assets, the further they will go & the more people they will touch.
Education has value. Universities are some of the most powerful brands in the world: Melbourne University, number 1 in Australian, Stanford, Stokholm. Thes institutions licence their IP for very capable people to earn a very good education & they licence it for a fee. Most people don’t realise, but education is a massive business in the world, we pay a premium for it, & we pay for the certificate that you get at the end. The second biggest industry in Australian is education.

BEST MOMENTS

‘IP is essentially about ideas. I believe in the power of ideas, & I believe the best ideas can change the world.’

‘Purpose & profit do go together because they make the most impact.’

‘You’re not an entrepreneur unless you’re providing a sustainable business that can affect thousands of people.’

‘We now live in an ideas economy that’s being accelerated by AI in front of our eyes.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Gareth Benson is a qualified lawyer with the Law Institute of Victoria, admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2003 Gareth commenced his articles with boutique media entertainment practice Hebert Geer and Rundle (now Thomson Geers) and for Bradley Allen lawyers in Canberra, Australia’s national capital.

Website

ABOUT THE HOST

Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing & home furnishing ecommerce business. Next, she created a sustainable fashion brand.

In 2019, she launched a social enterprise to help raise awareness about the negative impact of fashion at schools & colleges.

Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring & digital marketing company.

Tze Ching’s mission is to create a community of global change makers and to contribute to positive change in both people & planet.

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