Kid, don't steal the hubcaps, steal the whole car. Frank Sinatra speaks this line in the 1964 Rat Pack movie, Robin and the seven hoods (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEED6133BF930A15755C0A967958260 sec= spon= pagewanted=2). He plays Robbo, a 1920s Chicago gangster. He recalls a mentor and says, When I was a kid, he caught me stealin' hubcaps off his car, and he said, 'Kid, don't steal the hubcaps, steal the whole car.' This was wise guy advice for 1920s Chicago. Today in Australia, for car makers and others with intellectual property (IP) assets, we believe hubcap thieves are the most common and dangerous pests. As IP strategists we'll share tips on how to lock them out.

Good ideas need a proposal in support. Here's a checklist of seven key topics to help improve your proposals. It is not written with any particular industry or type of product or service in mind. The further reading list contains more guidance, some of which relates to specific areas.

A fun and helpful website tool at wordle.net (http://www.wordle.net/) can help visualise your business and its offerings. It can be used to visualise messages associated with your brand. If you don't have clarity about your brand, it makes it harder to sell to others. I often say this to clients seeking trade mark registration (ip/special-collection-trade-marks-2.html) or cultural or operational changes in their business (commercialisation-knowledge-management/library-articles-and-publications-categorised-by-buiness-life.html).

Here at Lightbulb we are no friend of churnalism (http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1 storycode=40123 c=1). It misleads, rots brains, produces stupidity. So instead of regurgitating writing by others (ie churnalism), our preference is to include links to good writing while providing analysis or commentary. After all, Lightbulb is a magazine or journal style of publication, not a daily. This preference flew out the door this morning. It took flight on reading a very timely, succinct and nicely illustrated piece by Jim Belshaw on the economic conditions for Australians today. Belshaw provides a snapshot on a paper delivered by Ric Battellino, the Deputy Governor of Australia's Reserve Bank.

One year ago, the benchmark S P/ASX 200 Index sailed to a record 6828.70 points. Amid the euphoria of a seemingly unassailable resources boom, even the most sober analysts thought a break above 7000 points was inevitable. Fast forward 12 months and the market is barely clinging to 4000 points. Despite a strong rally yesterday, shares have shed 41% since peaking last November 1 [2007], as the crippling credit crisis and threat of global recession turns the world on its head. Special Collection: Business Valuation, Sale or Purchase (ip/special-collection-business-valuation-sale-or-purchase.html).

If an employee collects customer friends in Linkedin (http://www.linkedin.com/home), can the employee do business with those friends after joining a new employer? Can that employee who collected the customer friends while at the former employer now use them with the new employer? This question became topical due to an English employment law court case in early 2008.

The A$147,400 fine paid by Dodo Australia Pty Ltd ( Dodo ) highlights the legal risks of telemarketing under Australian law. It also shows the teeth of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) ( Act ) for calls made to home landlines and personal mobile phones which are on the Do Not Call Register. The first offence fine paid by Dodo underlines what we said in Telemarketers must comply with the Do Not Call Register Act (ip-tech-e-biz/telemarketers-must-comply-with-the-do-not-call-registe-2.html): Marketing is one of the most regulated business functions and is affected by well over 20 different laws in Australia.

Yesterday I received an email from India asking for advice on how to start an IT consultancy business. I'll share my answer. Most of it applies to all types of businesses. The email from India asked: How do I start my company, which persons do I contact, and what resources should I acquire. My reply and advice is set out below.

A few years ago I wrote a personal vision of what it takes for a client to benefit from innovation. At the time I was seeking to integrate several models or typologies for the commercialisation (ip/defining-commercialisation-2.html) of intellectual property (ip/intellectual-property-defined-2.html). I titled my statement RAPS Conversion Model . It was like a manifesto. This post ends with a list of the 7 principles discussed in the RAPS statement. I made up the RAPS acronym from Requirements, Assets, Perspectives and Systems. My focus was on how to convert intellectual property into value, hence the terms Conversion Model . While I was not thinking of it at the time, RAPS harked back to the time of Leonardo da Vinci. You could be a painter and arty at the same time as gain respect as a scientist and technologist. All areas continue to be fueled by imagination and creativity. Maybe we are returning to that age. I'll return to this theme later.

Is your business seeking to collaborate with others but is unsure how to go about it? Are you unsure of the options, legal jargon and financial terms of engagement? Here's the classic process to unblocking this log jam. Business relationships involve deals, deal making, business models and contracts. How do these concepts differ? How do you select the best option for a particular situation? This post illustrates our specialisation in helping clients define their business relationships. It's part of doing business and more broadly, business structuring and enterprise structuring.