No Legacy Left Behind: How to Protect Trademarks, Copyrights, and Royalties
Because your brilliance should build wealth for generations, not just likes and followers.
You didn’t just build a business—you created a movement. You didn’t just write a book—you birthed a legacy. Whether it's your patented invention, podcast series, fashion line, or mobile app, your intellectual property (IP) is one of the most powerful wealth-building tools in your estate.
Many Black entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators don’t realize they’re sitting on a goldmine of IP assets that, if properly structured into an estate plan, could fund their family for generations.
Let’s change that.
What Exactly is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property refers to intangible assets you create that hold legal, commercial, and cultural value. These include:
• Copyrights – Books, poems, music, podcasts, videos, websites, courses, scripts, art
• Trademarks – Logos, brand names, slogans, product packaging, hashtags
• Patents – Inventions, formulas, tech applications, product designs, tools
• Trade Secrets – Business methods, recipes, strategies, formulas, client lists
• Licensing Agreements – Royalties earned when others use your work or brand
• Publishing Rights – Who controls, reprints, or profits from your written or audio work
• Digital Assets – NFTs, domain names, social media handles, app designs, digital products
• Trademarks – Logos, brand names, slogans, product packaging, hashtags
• Patents – Inventions, formulas, tech applications, product designs, tools
• Trade Secrets – Business methods, recipes, strategies, formulas, client lists
• Licensing Agreements – Royalties earned when others use your work or brand
• Publishing Rights – Who controls, reprints, or profits from your written or audio work
• Digital Assets – NFTs, domain names, social media handles, app designs, digital products
These assets can continue generating income long after you're gone—if you protect and pass them down with intention.
Why You Must Include IP in Your Estate Plan
Let’s keep it real—when our community passes without a plan, our ideas often get lost, stolen, or exploited. Your estate plan ensures your family owns your genius, not the courts or outsiders.
Here’s why IP belongs in your estate plan:
1. Builds Generational Wealth
Licensing fees, royalties, and patent income can fund your children’s education, businesses, and homeownership.
Licensing fees, royalties, and patent income can fund your children’s education, businesses, and homeownership.
2. Prevents Legal Chaos
Don’t let probate courts, former collaborators, or greedy corporations decide what happens to your ideas.
Don’t let probate courts, former collaborators, or greedy corporations decide what happens to your ideas.
3. Preserves Creative Control
Want your music played only at HBCUs? Or your invention used only by Black-led startups? Put it in writing.
Want your music played only at HBCUs? Or your invention used only by Black-led startups? Put it in writing.
4. Ensures Business Continuity
If your company or brand is built on protected IP, securing it ensures your heirs can run it or sell it.
If your company or brand is built on protected IP, securing it ensures your heirs can run it or sell it.
Steps to Protect and Pass Down Your IP
Let’s get to the actionable part, sis. Here’s how to lock it in:
1. Create a Full IP Inventory
Make a master list of all IP you own or co-own. Include copyrights, trademarks, patents, digital assets, domain names, e-books, inventions, recipes, business systems—everything.
2. Confirm Legal Ownership
If your IP is registered under your business (like an LLC or S-Corp), make sure your business is part of your estate plan. If it's in your name, ensure documentation is current and valid.
3. Get a Professional Valuation
Royalties, licensing rights, and patents may have high market value. A valuation helps determine how to transfer or tax your assets strategically.
4. Use a Trust to Transfer
IP A Revocable Living Trust or IP-specific trust allows you to avoid probate and control exactly how your IP is used, licensed, and passed on.
5. Name Knowledgeable Trustees or Heirs
Don’t just pass on your assets—pass on understanding. Choose someone with the smarts (or the lawyer) to manage and maximize your IP assets.
6. Include Licensing, Usage, and Control Instructions
Spell it all out. Can your family remix your music? Publish your work posthumously? Sell your patented invention? Own it with your words—while you’re here.
7. Protect Your IP While You’re Alive
File your copyrights. Trademark your brand. Patent your inventions. Secure your domain names and digital rights. You can’t pass down what you don’t legally own.
Make a master list of all IP you own or co-own. Include copyrights, trademarks, patents, digital assets, domain names, e-books, inventions, recipes, business systems—everything.
2. Confirm Legal Ownership
If your IP is registered under your business (like an LLC or S-Corp), make sure your business is part of your estate plan. If it's in your name, ensure documentation is current and valid.
3. Get a Professional Valuation
Royalties, licensing rights, and patents may have high market value. A valuation helps determine how to transfer or tax your assets strategically.
4. Use a Trust to Transfer
IP A Revocable Living Trust or IP-specific trust allows you to avoid probate and control exactly how your IP is used, licensed, and passed on.
5. Name Knowledgeable Trustees or Heirs
Don’t just pass on your assets—pass on understanding. Choose someone with the smarts (or the lawyer) to manage and maximize your IP assets.
6. Include Licensing, Usage, and Control Instructions
Spell it all out. Can your family remix your music? Publish your work posthumously? Sell your patented invention? Own it with your words—while you’re here.
7. Protect Your IP While You’re Alive
File your copyrights. Trademark your brand. Patent your inventions. Secure your domain names and digital rights. You can’t pass down what you don’t legally own.
What Happens If You Don’t?
If you die without a plan:
• Your royalties may be frozen in probate for years.
• Your brand or invention could be stolen and monetized by someone else.
• Your heirs may be forced to sell IP at a discount—or worse, lose it completely.
• Your family might have no idea how to manage the rights you left behind.
• Your brand or invention could be stolen and monetized by someone else.
• Your heirs may be forced to sell IP at a discount—or worse, lose it completely.
• Your family might have no idea how to manage the rights you left behind.
We’ve seen it happen to Black legends. Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen to you.
Pro Tip: IP is a Family Asset
Teach your kids the value of ownership. Show them how Auntie’s book still pays the bills. How Uncle’s invention funded the family trip. Make IP part of your family’s language—not just a legal concept.
Final Word
Your creativity isn’t disposable—it’s divine. It deserves protection, respect, and the power to change your family’s financial future. Estate planning is how you make sure your genius keeps giving long after you're gone.
Join Our #30DayLegacy Challenge Let your IP live, earn, and build. That’s the kind of inheritance we call revolutionary.
Stay Woke!
L.A. Mason, Chief Strategist
#30DayLegacy #EstatePlanningIsSexy #BlackLuxury
#BlackGirlMagic #RadicalSelfCare #StayWoke
#30DayLegacy #EstatePlanningIsSexy #BlackLuxury
#BlackGirlMagic #RadicalSelfCare #StayWoke