Intellectual Property Lawyers

A Founder or Co-Founder Dispute Over IP

Founder IP disputes are damaging out of proportion to their size because they usually surface during a financing or acquisition, when the company can least afford them. The root cause is almost always the same: work created before incorporation, with no assignment, by people who assumed the company owned it. It did not - unless someone signed something.

IP Due Diligence Before an Acquisition or Funding Round

IP diligence exists to answer one question: does the company actually own what it says it owns, and can it keep using it. Chain of title is where problems concentrate - contractor work with no assignment, founder IP never transferred, and open source obligations nobody tracked. These are usually fixable, but they are far cheaper to fix before a transaction than during one.

Protecting a New Product or Invention

Patents protect functional inventions; trademarks protect brand identifiers; copyright protects creative expression and code; trade secrets protect information you keep confidential. The most common and costly mistake is public disclosure before filing — in many jurisdictions that can destroy patentability.

Who Owns the Work a Contractor or Employee Created

Paying for work does not necessarily mean owning the IP in it. The default rules differ by relationship and by right: work created by an **employee** in the course of employment generally belongs to the employer, while work by an **independent contractor** generally belongs to the contractor unless there is a written assignment. Businesses discover this at the worst possible moment - during due diligence, a funding round, or a dispute with the person who built the thing.

You Received a Cease and Desist Letter

Do not ignore it, and do not reply immediately. A cease and desist is an assertion, not a determination - many are overstated, and some are sent to businesses that are not infringing at all. But ignoring one invites escalation, and an unconsidered reply can concede facts you would otherwise contest. The useful first step is understanding exactly what is being claimed and how strong it is.