You’re an entrepreneur with a big idea and you’re poised to disrupt your target industry. Intellectual property is key to your success. To get your company moving, you may bring in others such as co-founders, employees, consultants, advisors, developers and creative talent. Founders, employees, developers, suppliers, and other contractors should all be bound by a written agreement stating that all intellectual property created in connection with the services performed for the startup is assigned to the startup. Absent a written agreement, the individual or entity providing the services will generally have ownership rights in such intellectual property, which will cause problems for the startup when it is looking to raise capital or be acquired.

“You have to set yourself up for the future.” 

When you and your co-founders begin to iterate on an idea and develop a business plan or begin to build a product or a platform, you are creating intellectual property (IP). IP comes in many forms but make sure that whatever IP is being developed for your new enterprise belongs to the entity and not the individuals behind the development of the IP. That includes your products, recipes, marketing materials, logo, branding, packaging, website, business plan, theme songs, inventions, and more. You need to decide what constitutes intellectual property for your company. Obviously it includes anything co-founders create, relating to the company, during work hours. But what about ideas generated outside the office, such as when someone is on vacation, or a voice recording someone adds to their phone with their “idea”. A broad definition related to the business of the company regardless of time or place can be used, but must be balanced with not discouraging employees to be creative in their own right and for their own interests.