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Dear Founders: Here Are Three IP Mistakes to Watch-Out For

Scott Edward Walker

Over the past six months, my firm has been engaged by a number of startups with significant intellectual property (“IP”) problems. In a couple of cases, the founders played lawyer on their own; in the other cases, the founders either used (i) a Web service that did not address IP issues or (ii) an inexperienced law firm.

IP 52
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Nuts & Bolts of Intellectual Property for New Startups

Gust

Having covered all the bases to ensure that your corporate name is available, the domain name can be acquired, and the name doesn’t infringe any existing trademarks (as we discussed last week ), now is a good time to look at the categories of intellectual property (IP) that are relevant to most startups. Intellectual property.

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The Legal Side of Entrepreneurship

YoungUpstarts

Craig Schmitz, a partner in the Technology Companies Group at law firm Godwin Proctor LLP who works on corporate, governance, board and fundraising issues, and Erika Fisher, an associate in the firm’s Business Law Department who deals with IP, fielded questions about the legal issues startups face. ” The Cost of Financing.

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[Event] [Singapore] Techventure 2011: A Sign of Increasing Asian Technology Innovation

YoungUpstarts

In particular, the level of R&D collaboration with and IP licensing from universities and public research institutes remained relatively low among high-tech firms. 59-percent) and the average of several European countries (ranging from 54- to 67-percent).

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Flexible VC, a New Model for Companies Targeting Profitability

David Teten

Eligible for favorable treatment under Qualified Small Business Stock exemption, if structured as equity. This applies if the investment converts into common stock; details are beyond this essay’s scope. Womble Bond Dickinson has released a white paper on Performance Aligned Stock and a term sheet on ImpactTerms.org. . (If

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Do It Right The First Time: Avoiding “Janitorial” Legal Work

Gust

Nevertheless, choosing to defer basic corporate housekeeping items can be disastrous in some circumstances, as when the failure to spend a few thousand dollars on legal fees to clarify IP ownership and equity arrangements comes back to bite a successful company to the tune of millions of dollars on the eve of a liquidity event. Good stuff!

IP 114
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When Does Zynga Become a Value Stock?

Agile VC

Governance/Control – Founder/CEO Mark Pincus has sold a good amount of his stock and owns <20% of shares outstanding, but now essentially has unilateral voting control of the company. So I can appreciate why public stock investors would be leery of Zynga and why the stock price has been punished recently.

Stock 160