IP Law for Startups is a blog that gives general, educational information about intellectual property law and explains the most common pitfalls and missteps that entrepreneurs make. It gives clear, concrete ways to protect your IP and avoid legal ruin. It helps startups draw an IP landmine map and navigate the dangerous terrain. The biggest ...
This Blog covers a wide range of topics in technology companies, including issues facing startups, financed companies, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a whole. It has legal discussions about seeking out funding, growing your business, convertible notes, options and restricted stock, 83b, deal terms and more.
Stock for Attorney Fees? This situation arises when a startup company offers stock to a lawyer in exchange for legal services. I’ve derived the following 2 postulates to explain why startups and lawyers agree to this setup: 1. Startups are broke. 2. Lawyers are expensive. For the same reasons that your startup lawyer should not ...
There are various things a potential founder of a new startup company needs to do before quitting their job. The article recommends:** Review all agreements with your current employer** Return confidential information to your employer** Limit pre-resignation activities** Prepare for the exit interview** Stay on good terms** Don’t forget about stock options and benefits** Consult ...
This tool will generate a venture financing term sheet based on your responses to an online questionnaire. It also has an informational component, with basic tutorials and annotations on financing terms. This term sheet generator is a modified version of a tool that we use internally, which comprises one part of a suite of document ...
When launching a startup, you want to make and keep your startup as valuable as possible. But in order to do that, your tech startup needs to ensure that (a) the intellectual property is owned by the startup, and (b) the co-founders who own the startup have proper incentives and rules to handle inevitable contingencies. ...
A buy-sell agreement is a document that preserves continuity of business ownership when specific events occur, such as death or disability of a business owner. It is a contract between shareholders or business partners concerning the future ownership of the business and can be drafted as part of the company’s shareholder agreement or as a ...
This is the blog og Yoichiro (‘Yokum’) Taku. He is a corporate and securities partner in the Palo Alto, California office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. His WSGR web bio is here. “I represent technology and growth companies at all stages of development, through private financings, strategic transactions, public offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. ...
There is a simple legal answer to your question: this type of behavior that you and your colleague are discussing is an illegal solicitation under the law. Note, that I’m assuming that people you are contacting are not accredited investors. If the people that you are contacting are not accredited investors, you don’t have an ...
Regardless of the source of your financing–family and friends, angels, or venture capital–you will need some vehicle, forms, or set of papers to make it all nice and legal. On the surface, it would seem that if you’re going to sell stock, you could take the investors’ check and give them a stock certificate. Or ...