Influencer
Francesca Witzburg, TheTrademarkAttorney, on Protecting Intellectual Property as a Creator and Business Owner
Intellectual property is work or inventions that result from your creativity, such as names, logos, and trade secrets. As a creator and business owner, protecting your intellectual property is crucial for your business’s long-term success, as these are significant assets. Francesca Witzburg, TheTrademarkAttorney, shares how she is creating social media content to provide educational resources for business owners and her tips for sharing legal social media content online.
About Francesca Witzburg
Francesca Witzburg is an Intellectual Property Lawyer creating trademark and law social media content and protecting growing businesses with trademarks, contracts, and copyrights. Before the pandemic, she worked in intellectual property at one of the world’s biggest law firms in Manhattan. Only two months into the pandemic, she gave birth to her first son.
Francesca Witzburg shares, “[While] lying there in the hospital bringing life into the world and really seeing everything around me, people battling for their lives, just made me realize how lucky I am and blessed and that I wanted to spend more time doing the things that I truly loved. So, I ended up moving to a film where I could work a hundred percent remote and where I could have the flexibility to be a new mom and build a new business.”
When she started her business, she created an Instagram account and began connecting with others online to grow her business.
Creating Content for TheTrademarkAttorney
Francesca Witzburg shares that the most challenging aspect of running her business is creating content while working as an attorney full-time.
Francesca explains, “It really is a grind for anyone who’s creating content. There’s an intention that goes behind it: What are you going to post? What type of medium are you going to post? Are you going to do a video? Will you do audio? What’s the messaging?”
As a way to juggle both her full-time career and social media content creation, Francesca records videos for the month in batches. She also has a social media manager who helps her put them together.
@lawyerfrancesca What are your thoughts about NFTs? #trademarkattorney #trademarklawyer #copyrightlawyer #contractlawyer #bizlawyer #businesslawyer #bizlaw #iplawyer #fyp #intellectualproperty #lawschool #trademarks #biztips #businesstips #businessowner #entrepreneur #popculturenews #celebritynews #lawtok #biztok ♬ Oh my God. – Quinny👍
Her content ideas are a mixture of relevant content based on breaking stories or issues on her mind and videos she plans out in advance. Her job as an attorney also provides her with plenty of inspiration for creating content on intellectual property.
What is Intellectual Property?
Francesca Witzburg shares, “Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind. They are names, designs, logos, and proprietary information, and they are the core assets of any business. Most people, if you’re operating a company or even if you’re creating content, you have IP, but the question is if that intellectual property is protected.”
Francesca’s work helps business owners protect their intellectual property through trademarks, copyrights, and contracts.
One of her favorite success stories was helping a celebrity client legally protect their name for an entertainment type-service. The client’s name is a common phrase, and many people had told her that she could not trademark it.
However, Francesca explained to her, “You’ve built a brand around this. This isn’t just a common phrase. You’ve really invested a lot of time and money to have people recognize [the phrase] when they see that in connection with your entertainment service. They think of you, they don’t think of a general phrase, so I was able to successfully argue that to the government, and her trademark is going to register soon.”
@lawyerfrancesca One of my favorite skills is designing global protection plans for businesses and enforcing their rights #trademarkattorney #trademarklawyer #copyrightlawyer #contractlawyer #bizlawyer #businesslawyer #bizlaw #iplawyer #fyp #intellectualproperty #lawschool #trademarks #biztips #businesstips #businessowner #entrepreneur #popculturenews #celebritynews #lawtok #biztok ♬ original sound – desty932
Do You Monetize Your Social Media?
Francesca Witzburg shares that, at this time, she does not monetize her social media accounts.
She notes, “It’s [Monetization] is something that I’m sure my answer will evolve in the next couple of years. I use my platform to educate and to give as much free information as possible.”
Previously, legal information was gatekept with costly financial barriers to attain the information from lawyers. Today, Francesca and other legal influencers share information online for free, helping many business owners in the process.
The second reason Francesca has chosen not to monetize her platform at this time is her desire to maintain authenticity on her platforms.
“If I do monetization or partnerships in the future, they will be very vetted and with partners that I truly believe are helping people in some way because I want people to know and trust and understand that if I’m suggesting something, it’s in their best interests. It’s not just because I am making money. At the end of the day, my main source of income is being a good lawyer.”
At this point, Francesca Witzburg has not collaborated with brands but is currently exploring some options in the AI legal tech space, which she feels is a niche that will significantly benefit lawyers in the future.
Tips for Creators Sharing Legal Content
Many lawyers and attorneys interested in creating legal content are nervous about others viewing their social media as attorney advertising or getting in trouble for giving out legal advice or breaking confidentiality. However, this doesn’t have to be the case.
Francesca shares, “My best advice for you is just to keep things super simple. Don’t go into too much detail. Give people the high-level educational information. If you were speaking on a public panel, how would you convey things to people? That’s really what entrepreneurs and people who are on these platforms need.”
Access to legal information online helps your audience understand legal concepts, how to use them, and when they should consult a lawyer for help.
Keep your content educational, understandable, and without too much jargon or detail.
Thoughts About the Future of the Legal Industry and Her Brand
In the future, Francesca Witzburg thinks the legal industry will continue expanding into social media. For example, she shares that many lawyers use Linkedin to share content, and it’s a stepping stone for those uninterested in sharing on TikTok or Instagram.
She says, “Linkedin is a great place to be right now. People are posting fun content. I probably reshare 90% of my content on Instagram. I reshare on Linkedin and also create Linkedin-specific content because there are so many people in your professional network that want to see a different side of you.”
Many lawyers and professionals grew up thinking that sharing content about their family, hobbies, and travels was unprofessional and that a professional lawyer could only act in one way. However, this “rule” has changed with the rise of social media.
“I’ve gotten amazing feedback from supervisors and clients and people in general who have said that it’s like a breath of fresh air to see something more than just someone in a suit without a personality. That’s what has kept me going. I use social media as an extension of my personality.”
As for herself, Francesca is excited to continue creating accessible, impactful legal information and using technology to deliver high-quality, cost-effective services to her clients.
