In order to raise the profile of her London-based firm Azrights, her book and the importance of intellectual property (IP) as a whole, lawyer Shireen Smith has put her faith in video.

She enlisted the help of London-based video production company Element 26 to produce an animated film that explains how essential it is for small businesses to protect their IP.

Azrights specialises in helping owners of businesses in the digital economy to use legal frameworks to create intangible assets. When properly protected, these assets can often become more valuable than the products or services that the business sells.

Shireen Smith said, “Lots of people don’t understand the value of IP because they can’t see it or hold it. To address this, we asked Nathan Haines, Managing Director at Element 26, to produce a video to increase understanding of this vital area of the law. In the digital economy, IP is changing rapidly and small business owners need to prioritise it to avoid pitfalls.

“By educating businesspeople of the importance of IP law, the video Nathan produced encourages them to approach Azrights for advice or to read my recently launched book ‘Intellectual Property Revolution’.”

Such was the interest in ‘Intellectual Property Revolution’ that it was a bestseller in its category on Amazon before it had even been launched and continues to be so a week after the launch.

Written in plain English, it explains to business owners and brand ‘guardians’ how to successfully manage IP assets, protect brands and add value to businesses in the digital economy.

Shireen Smith adds, “The new currency in our digital economy is information, know-how, brands, systems and data. Whether people are building a brand identity, launching a new product or service worldwide, or even a start-up business, they’re also creating intellectual property.