article thumbnail

Someone Stole My Startup Idea – Part 3: The Best Defense is a Good IP Strategy

Steve Blank

Contract, NDA. _. The test for non-obvious is: given the prior art at the time of the invention, would a typical engineer 1) identify the problem, and 2) solve it with the invention? Under California law, employers may own inventions that are “related to employer’s reasonably anticipated R&D.” Trade Secrets. _. Inventions.

article thumbnail

Series Seed Financing Documents

www.seriesseed.com

It would be helpful to get a California standard employee manual, employee contract/agreements, IP ownership release to company, and confidentiality. Standard 1-way/bi-lateral NDA's, standard templates for an employee manual, employee contract/agreements, IP ownership release to company are on my wish-list too. Thanks again!

Finance 40
article thumbnail

How to Start a Startup

www.paulgraham.com

The market price is less than the inconvenience of signing an NDA. You make elaborate plans for a product, hire a team of engineers to develop it (people who do this tend to use the term "engineer" for hackers), and then find after a year that youve spent two milliondollars to develop something no one wants.

Startup 105