For those of us who own and operate an online business, words like “contracts” and “trademarks” can trigger a flood of negative feelings: panic, dread, even fear.

Maria Spear Ollis would like to add another word to that list: relief. The Nashville-based lawyer devotes her professional life to bringing peace of mind to bloggers, podcasters, and online brands when it comes to all things IP protection, contracts, and Internet law. Her goal is simple: to best support female entrepreneurship by making the path to protecting and growing an online business affordable, understandable, and low-stress.

Listener’s tune in as Phoebe and Maria dive deep into the often murky landscape of intellectual property law, unpacking what it actually means to have protection over your creative work, what measures business owners can take to address issues like brand copycats, and most importantly, WHY it is so important for creatives to invest their resources (both emotional and financial) into securing legal protection for their brand.