I meet with a lot of folks who have come up with a nifty idea for a product, but who, for various reasons, don’t want to be entrepreneurs. Instead, they want to sell their idea to a big company. If you have an idea for a product that you’re going to promote or peddle to…
Category Archives: Intellectual property
Five Ways to Put My Kids Through College
As your corporate and IP lawyer, I would like to thank you for the situations into which you get yourself, extraction from which requires the payment of substantial sums of cash to me. Far more cash, it must be said, than you would have paid me had you brought the situation to me in the…
Embaggen the cat, or let it out? (to NDA or not to NDA)
When first conceiving of a new startup idea, lots of entrepreneurs experience a measure of paranoia about it and start demanding that everyone with whom they discuss it sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA). My opinion is: Don’t use an NDA until you must in order to protect highly sensitive, non-public information. NDA’s protect actual secrets,…
Bi-polar IP Strategy for Startups: Protect What You Can, then Tell Everyone
If you’re starting a company, you may wish to begin in stealth mode, keeping your business idea and plans secret for a little while. During this stealth phase, consider doing the following to protect your intellectual property: Think of a name for the company. Do a trademark search before you form a company. If it’s…
Copyright Duration: How Disney Moved the Finish Line
This post is excerpted from Ownability – How Intellectual Property Works, now available for pre-order at a 20% discount at myownability.com. In 2002, Steam Boat Willy, the first major film in which the venerable Mickey Mouse character appears, was about to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its release. Under the copyright law in force at…
Intellectual Property is the Ownability of your Own Ability
Excerpt from chapter 1 of Ownability – How Intellectual Property Works now available for pre-order at a 20% discount. Intellectual property is everywhere. You can hardly exist in the modern world, let alone on the internet, without accessing or using someone’s intellectual property. The rules of intellectual property help you turn ideas into money, which,…
Ownability
Holy cow, I wrote a book. Check out Ownability and pre-order for a 20% discount!…
Bilski Haiku
Lots of great blow-by-blow analysis out there regarding Monday’s long-awaited U.S. Supreme Court decision on the extent to which software and business methods qualify for patent protection. Here it is as a haiku. Nine, robed black, have kept The path to patents lit, for Software and methods. Be at peace…
Designing for the Future
Remarks delivered to open the Internet Technology Summit, Orlando, 22 June 2010. It is human nature to root for the underdog. Make no mistake, we loves us some winners, but we adores us some winners when they come from behind. May 26, 2010, was a momentous day for come-from-behind winners. For example, on the Fox…
Audit your IP Portfolio or Face Certain Doom
You are living every entrepreneur’s dream. After years of sleepless nights sweating for equity, you are preparing to cash out. Your startup company has become an acquisition target. After several rounds of negotiations, a strategic partner offers to buy your company for a whopping $100 million. You’ll finally get a good night’s sleep. You are…
