Transcript Unit 4 Selected Topics Intellectual Property Patents Start up companies Start Up Companies • Intellectual property • Contracts • Investment.

Unit 4 Selected Topics
Intellectual Property
Patents
Start up companies
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Start Up Companies
• Intellectual property
• Contracts
• Investment
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Intellectual Property
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Patents
Trade Secret/Proprietary
Publishing
Copyrights
Licensing
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Patents
• The most important type of intellectual property,
patents should possess all three of the following:
– Unique
– Unobvious
– Useful
• The value of a start up company depends
largely on the number and quality of its patents.
• Patents should be written as broadly as possible
to cover as many circumstances as possible.
Often something other than what you intended
may be covered by your patent.
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How Do You Make Patents
• Usually these are created between an engineer and a
lawyer.
• Sometimes you make the device work first and then look
for the invention.
• TRIZ is a systematic method for creating inventions and
solving problems. http://www.mazur.net/triz/
• Patents cost money to maintain each year. If you don’t
pay the patent becomes public domain.
• The following web site maintains a list of patents which
have become public domain:
• http://www.yet2.com/
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Other Intellectual Property
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Trade Secret/Proprietary
Publishing
Copyrights
Licensing
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Other Intellectual Property
• Trade Secret/Proprietary
– Used if it may be difficult to prove a patent is
being violated.
– Software such as Excel and Windows fall into
this category since the source code is kept
secret.
– You must make sure that it is kept clearly
labeled as proprietary information or trade
secret.
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Other Intellectual Property
• Publishing
– If you publish how you do something before it
is patented then someone else cannot
prevent you from doing it the way you
published it.
– So this provides some limited protection for
you.
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Other Intellectual Property
• Copyrights
– This applies more to writing and pictures. If
you create it, you own the copyrights. If you
want to be able to sue someone for using
your material you must register it.
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Other Intellectual Property
• Licensing
– Legal agreements that allow you to use
someone else’s intellectual property such as a
patent.
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Contracts
• Employment contracts may include
clauses which prohibit you from working
on the same technology for another
company for a number of years.
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Investment
• Investors
• Stock options
• IPO, Initial Public Offering of stock
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Investment
• Investors
– Venture capitalists
• Investors in high risk start up companies.
• Often professionally managed funds.
– Angel investors
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May invest in more risky companies than venture capitalists.
Expect a certain number of the companies to fail.
Hope to make money back on the few which succeed.
Sometimes organized into angel networks to pool their
money.
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Investment
• Stock options
– Often part of your salary when working for a start up
company is in stock options.
– You may have to work for several years before they
are fully valued.
– The stock options provide you with incentive to work
harder for a start up company and compensate you
for the lack of security compared to working for an
established company.
– You have the option to buy the stock at a certain price
which is hopefully lower than the price at the time you
buy it.
– You may want to sell the stock immediately even
though you will be taxed more.
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Investment
• IPO, Initial Public Offering of stock
– If you have stock options then they may be worth lots
of money when the company goes public, offers its
stock to the public for the first time (or not).
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Links
• http://www.yet2.com/
• http://www.uspto.gov/
• http://www.mazur.net/t
riz/
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