Home topics small-business-resources legal IP Legal Startup IP What small businesses can learn from the NRMA and Parking Made Easy dispute Dominic Green August 8, 2016 Over the past few years, a strong entrepreneurial spirit has developed in Australia, leading to a record number of startup businesses. While this is fantastic, a great idea needs to be properly thought through from a legal perspective so it doesn’t hit a road block when it comes time to get it off the ground. Big corporations in particular watch the new players in the market, what their offering is and if it competes with anything they might be working on. Consequently, I have seen an increase in copyright and IP cases here in Australia over the past two years. The biggest danger for such businesses is infringement of copyright, trademarks or intellectual property (IP). These terms can sometimes be confused, but it’s important that small businesses understand the difference and why it’s important to understand them. If not, they could end up facing an uphill battle, such as the current dispute between NRMA and Parking Made Easy . While we don’t know the outcome of this yet, there are indeed some lessons that people should take away to ensure they avoid a situation like this. Intellectual Property (IP) is a general term describing a concept or idea of commercial value. It is a wide umbrella including more specific types of IP, such as copyright, trademarks and patents. Copyright is the exclusive right to