The Top Five Reasons Entrepreneurs Should Learn About IP Law

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by hjw3001 • 15 years ago

24 9 15 years ago

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Rariel• 15 years ago

Very important. As a lawyer and startup founder I find it really interesting that IP law isn't mentioned more on blogs/hacker sites/ etc because it is very important, especially the TM aspect. Perhaps it's because most startups fail or never get big enough to run in to these issues?

tayip9• 15 years ago

Yes

paul9290• 15 years ago

Although the concept our start-up created http://Sleep.FM - The Social Alarm Clock® has not become a popular one(not yet at least), we see many others giving the concept a go and inadvertently (we assume) use our registered mark to market their app or web service. Most developers when notified of their infringement of mark cease use - yet i often wonder if these developers did a Google search before spending time and or money to develop their product?

alain94040• 15 years ago

As someone who has tried to educate new entrepreneurs about IP, I can tell you it's really hard to get the message across. By default, new founders just have no idea that IP matters at all. They understand moral principles like "stealing is bad", but they are clueless about licenses, patents, copyright and trademarks. It takes at least 2 hours of a pretty intense discussion to get them to even remotely open their eyes.

And in practice, does it really matter? Look at YouTube, they cheated to get started, and no one seems to care. Better cheat and win than play by the rules.

printerjam• 15 years ago

The new entrepreneurs you deal with, have they worked in other startups before or are they really young?

The first thing I did with my company was hire a lawyer. This is the first company I've personally started, but not my first startup. So my question above has to do with the experience level of the folks to whom you are preaching. To me, getting incorporated correctly, trademark searches, etc. was extremely important and well worth the money I paid.

joe_the_user2• 15 years ago

Well,

Happy you're failing...

Seriously, the more people who defy IP, the weaker it gets...

"The Facts": 'IP Owners' aim to get whatever they can, like beavers damning a stream to get all the fish, the IP industry is currently proceeding with unbounded ambitions.

Yes, tell me I'm conflating copyright, trademark, patent and other legal device. Just like that little troll called ... Oracle...

kkowalczyk• 15 years ago

Here's the problem: the law of quickly diminishing returns.

Recently I've tried to "learn more" about one specific IP issue: what are the rules for Intellectual Property developed while being employed by someone but outside of work and not using employer's equipment?

I've read very informative discussion on http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/19422, including authoritative-sounding response from Joel Spolsky and frankly, I don't think that in terms of knowledge I can act on with confidence about what the final outcome will be, I'm any smarter than I was before I've read it.

The bottom line seems to be: technically the company that employs me owns any IP I do during employment but if you're lucky you're not going to be sued.

And that seems to apply more generically: in most cases you can use your common sense (don't use other people's trademarks, don't write code for your future company at your current workplace etc.) but when things get contentious, it's anyone's guess what the final outcome will be.

I've got code to write and the time spent reading books on IP law (which is part of the advice that this article gives) is time not spent writing software.

What I need is not a book or 50 blog posts but a "1 day guide" to the most important issues which provides bottom-line advice and not only "this is what theoretically might happen" but "this is how it usually works out" (e.g. in the context of "who owns the IP developed during employment" the theoretical advice is "employer, so don't even think about bootstrapping your startup in your free time" but practical advice is "technically employer, but it's virtually unheard of employers suing ex-employees and many do it, so keep things quiet and bootstrap anyway").

joe_the_user2• 15 years ago

I can't remember where, but I believe I heard a Linus Torvald quote to the effect that open source developers should not research potential patent infringement for applications they're developing.

I would boldly extend this to the claim that no should 'learn about ip' while they are developing. IP is essentially protection racket. Sure you can learn a little bit of the dance but it won't unless you're on of the 'big boys'. In the end, there's no great difference between between a patent troll and a corporation seen as having 'legitimate ip'. IP rackets resemble states in the sense that they are gangs trying to suck the fattest tt they can find.

The best strategy isn't to "know what's legal" but to avoid attention `till you're big enough to kick the snot out of these bandits.

IP mavens are [INSERT SOCIALLY DIMINISHING ADJECTIVE HERE].

hoag• 15 years ago

I realize I'm a bit biased with my comment, but frankly, I think law school is great for any entrepreneur. In fact, I attended law school specifically because I wanted to return to startup world. The analysis methods taught in law school are invaluable to life as an entrepreneur. That I now have an understanding of the law is a pretty cool bonus.

The Top Five Reasons Entrepreneurs Should Learn About IP Law

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