Erin Austin advises consultants to build exclusive assets and sustainable processes in their practice if they want to be able to sell it.
Erin Austin: Two Things You Must Do If You Want to Sell Your Business Read More »
This post explains the basics of intellectual property in practical terms for bootstrappers: trademarks, patents, copyright and trade secrets. An hour or two with an attorney can save you much trouble later on.
Basics of Intellectual Property for Bootstrappers Read More »
If you need an attorney because you want to initiate a lawsuit, please consider the opportunity cost very carefully before proceeding. The time to hire an attorney is before you sign an agreement, not after.
Q: I need an attorney who works with startups who don’t have a ton of cash Read More »
Attention-selling business models have incentives for fostering unhealthy addictive behavior. They are refining online interactions into the equivalent of digital heroin: experiences that are highly pleasurable, highly addictive, and in the long run seriously harmful. My goal is to offer several perspectives on certain business models that encourage a “race to the bottom” and provide
Superstimulus: Refining Online Interactions into Digital Heroin Read More »
I recently sat down with Pete Tormey, a startup attorney in Silicon Valley, to discuss how to keep harmony among founders in a startup.
Pete Tormey: How to Keep Harmony Among Founders Read More »
Pete Tormey’s ebook “Startup Guide to Intellectual Property: Early Stage Protection of IP” is a great resource for founders on startup intellectual property. This blog post includes excerpts from the “Protecting IP Early” chapter that focus on protecting startup secrets early in its existence.
In the Beginning was the Doodle: Protecting Startup Secrets Read More »
Pete Tormey’s ebook “Startup Guide to Intellectual Property: Early Stage Protection of IP” is a great resource for founders on startup intellectual property. This blog post includes excerpts from the “Protecting IP Early” Chapter of Pete’s book. They cover some of the basic concepts of intellectual property and how to protect it early in your
In the Beginning Was the Doodle: Defining Startup Intellectual Property Read More »
“Leads–The Fuel for Your Sales Machine” is now a registered trademark of SKMurphy, Inc. Please contact us to learn more about our lead generation services.
Leads–The Fuel for Your Sales Machine Read More »
Some quick answers to common questions about how to protect your intellectual property (IP) and when to incorporate.
Q: When to Incorporate and Options for IP protection Read More »
Sean Murphy will moderate a panel of three experienced startup attorneys on November 29 for a Silicon Valley Cofounder Academy event at Hacker Dojo on “Cofounder Legal Challenges and Solutions.”
Cofounder Legal Challenges and Solutions at Hacker Dojo Tue-Nov-29 Read More »
Michael J. Riordan is a certified public accountant who has been in business in San Jose for more than 35 years. He gave a crisp briefing on “Bootstrapping a Service Business” at the Thursday Oct 8 PATCA meeting. He gave a great set of tips, here are my notes:
8 Tips For Bootstrapping A Service Business Read More »
This post has been percolating for two years, it’s a request to folks working on networking, social networks, and other technologies to consider the implications of their actions. My thesis is that the combination of advertising driven firms that sell their audience as the product and efforts to prevent another 9-11 have combined to create
Pearl Harbor to 9-11 to the Panopticon Read More »
One good way to make predictions about the future of a new technology is to examine the paths that similar technologies have taken historically and use them to draw likely trajectories. As Mark Twain observed, “History may not repeat itself but it does rhyme.” New technologies solve existing problems in in new ways, obsoleting existing
3d Printing IP Issues Read More »
While asking for a letter of intent may seem like a useful shortcut to assessing prospect intent, it normally causes many more problems than it solves.
Assessing Prospect Intent Read More »
There are a number of forms packages now available for entrepreneurs that provide templates for incorporation, investment term sheets, hiring employees and contractors, etc.. And there are several business model canvas tools that are designed to facilitate useful discussions among founders and advisors (and potential investors) about a new startup. But Nathan Beckord‘s Foundersuite is
FounderSuite Worth a Look for Saving Time On Your New Startup Read More »
Register for “How to Invent” for free Udemy course at http://www.udemy.com/how-to-invent/ “How To Invent” is a step-by-step guide for non-inventors to start inventing. It is organized as screencast lectures, practice sessions, and quizzes. It offers process for capturing on paper key ideas in your head that you want to document as intellectual property and possibly
Don’t Miss “Capturing Intellectual Property” Silicon Valley Workshop Oct-19-2013 Read More »
Every once in awhile we find great workshops that are open to all size companies. Bill Meade’s “Capturing Intellectual Property” is one such workshop. His hands-on workshop will cover: What is intellectual property (IP) The forms and functions of legal IP protections The IP system and its functioning (on one slide) Capturing an invention Checking
Capturing Intellectual Property Workshop: Saturday Oct-19-2013 Read More »
Every bootstrapper has a limited budget for attorney’s fees. Attorneys can help you foresee problems and craft contract language, which looks remarkably similar to English but is in fact code that is executed by the legal system. Use them to protect valuable assets–intellectual property, source code, revenue streams–not create them. A small digression If you
The Limits of Legal Self-Help Read More »
In 1995 I did some work for one of the early web startups in Palo Alto. They had delivered a number of database driven websites using a proprietary software technology that they had developed, and had sold the technology to several firms. But they had a problem collecting unpaid bills: they had not been paid
Collecting Unpaid Bills Read More »
I was delighted when Bill Meade, President of Basic IP Management, Inc. agreed to an interview about managing innovation and intellectual property (IP) to maximize profits. Bill served as Intellectual Property Manager and Future Products Manager at Hewlett-Packard, where he “lit the fire” that moved HP from #18 in US patenting to #3. He has
Inventors & IP Management: Bill Meade Interview Read More »
