Session 3&4: Measuring Financial Performance

3. What is a patent?
A patent is the granting of a property right by a sovereign authority to an inventor.
This grant provides the inventor exclusive rights to the patented process, design, or
invention for a designated period in exchange for a comprehensive disclosure of the
invention. They are a form of incorporeal right.

4. What are trade secrets?

A trade secret is any practice or process of a company that is generally not known
outside of the company. Information considered a trade secret gives the company an
economic advantage over its competitors and is often a product of internal research and
development.

5. What are trademarks?

A trademark is a recognizable insignia, phrase, word, or symbol that denotes a
specific product and legally differentiates it from all other products of its kind. A
trademark exclusively identifies a product as belonging to a specific company and
recognizes the company's ownership of the brand.

6. What are copyright?

Copyright refers to the legal right of the owner of intellectual property. In simpler
terms, copyright is the right to copy. This means that the original creators of products
and anyone they give authorization to are the only ones with the exclusive right to
reproduce the work.

7. What is meant by financial bootstrapping?

creative methods, including barter, to minimize the cash needed to start a venture,
minimizing the need for financial capital and finding unique ways of financing a new
venture.

8. What is seed and startup financing

Sources of funding available during the development and start up stages of a
venture life cycle:
 Seed financing: funds needed to determine whether an idea can be converted into a
viable business opportunity.
 Startup financing: funds need to take a venture from having established a viable
business opportunity to initial production and sales.