Each year corporations spend millions of dollars to develop and protect their brand or name. The concept of intellectual property, trademark and copyright is fundamental to business. To copy a trademark is counterfeiting which is a felony.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) estimates that the yearly cost of the worldwide counterfeit is approximately $500 billion.

Microsoft recently announced that it was launching lawsuits both in the US and in Europe to evict "cyber squatters." A cyber squatter is an individual or a corporation that registers a trademark domain name that is similar to an existing and legitimate trademark with the intention to offer to sell it back to the trademark owner for a large profit. One such cyber squatter registered the name of "micrsoft.com" Microsoft revealed that it has recovered more than one thousand domain name since last year.

What is in a name, or more precisely, what is in our name? What is our individual reputation? (I always wondered what people really mean when they say of someone: "He is a great guy" or "she is a wonderful woman?" What makes them great or wonderful?)

Barbara Garjian, a senior executive (and a fellow Armenian) of Chanel USA told the audience of an event I attended, how throughout her career, she had been influenced by one statement her father had made while she was growing up:

"Your name is on the box."

Her parents, immigrants, owned a convenience store in New York. Many immigrants began their American Dream by owning such stores. They were thus assured of having food and a roof for their families. Barbara helped out by delivering to their customers. She was motivated in the quality of the service she offered by the fact that their reputation was at stake. All through her life she remembered that whatever she did, whatever letter she signed, or comment she made, her name was "on the box."

Our reputation both precedes and follows us. Are we willing to do (or not do) whatever it takes to protect it?

As Warren Buffet once said:

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.