Intellectual Property Questions


337 Votes
21 Answers
497K Views
If I'm working at a company, do they have intellectual property rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?

I was interviewed by a lady from Zynga and she told me that Zynga doesn't allow developers to have side projects. Is this true for companies in general, or just a minority that Zynga is a part of?...

asked Jan 26 '11 at 16:35
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John
716 points

0 Votes
0 Answers
2.31K Views
Is the source doce an asset of the company or only the binaries?

A friend came to me asking to work with him around an idea he had. My role was software developer and he would create the business machinery around it. This did no went well at the beginning and we...

asked Oct 15 '19 at 14:50
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Manuel Sopena Ballesteros
1 point

0 Votes
0 Answers
2.35K Views
Can I enter into IP contract with my own company before having investors ?

I spent 4 years developing an App. Recently I started a Proprietary Limited company (I'm in Australia). Me and my wife are the only directors in the company. Before getting share holders into the...

asked Aug 30 '19 at 09:26
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Effort Of Deen
1 point

0 Votes
0 Answers
1.96K Views
what are the benefits of a partner requesting funds on my behalf?

I am in conversations with a startup interested in my project. I have not set up the company yet, thus we both wish to collaborate, and apply for public funds to develop my prototype/MVP. The idea...

asked Jul 2 '19 at 19:08
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MMA
1 point

0 Votes
0 Answers
1.84K Views
How convert intellectual property to equity?

Hi, I understand that IPR ownership is not the same as equity ownership. In a pre-incorporated stage, do you have any hints about how to value IPR (ie. algorithm) and proportionally convert it to...

asked Jul 2 '19 at 18:40
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MMA
1 point

0 Votes
0 Answers
2.41K Views
Who does code written by myself during a partnership belong to in the event the product is later "acquired" by the other party's company?

I was approached to do a re-skin of my work for 50/50. I agreed and continued to develop this new product. A third party joined and we agreed to 33.3% each. This new partner incorporated the...

asked Apr 7 '19 at 02:44
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Sierra
1 point

7 Votes
6 Answers
13.4K Views
How Do I Prevent Someone From Stealing My Idea On KickStarter

I have a great idea for a new product and I am thinking about launching it on Kickstarter, but I have one major problem. I am afraid that someone will steal my product and/or accuse me of stealing...

asked Jan 31 '13 at 07:27
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Annonomus Person
204 points

1 Votes
3 Answers
4.88K Views
Can a Greek letter be trademarked (for use within the scope of a particular service offering)?

Let's say we offer an approach to better dental hygiene and we call it the change™ dental hygiene solution and we represent our change™ solution with the Greek delta (?) symbol. Hence, we might...

asked Mar 5 '13 at 06:07
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C. Scott
85 points

1 Votes
1 Answers
3.62K Views
If I work as a building inspector and write code on the side, who owns?

Who owns the software I wrote that is used by my company? I'm in California. Nine years ago after having been laid off from my programming job, I started a new career. This job has nothing to do...

asked Mar 24 '15 at 22:15
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Speezy
6 points

1 Votes
2 Answers
3.14K Views
Do web-builders reserve rights to websites?

I've been pondering over this one for quite a while now, and after doing some research, nothing appeared to come up. So, my questions is, when you use a website builder like webs, weebly, or other...

asked Dec 4 '13 at 13:23
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Dylan Katz
10 points

21 Votes
5 Answers
4.52K Views
Teammates have pushed me out of our venture. What to do now?

I along with 3 other people created a concept for an innovative Ecommerce platform as part of a 5 week startup pre-incubator. We had a great run and on demo day we won the audience and panel of...

asked Aug 20 '11 at 04:10
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Adjoa Opoku
106 points

3 Votes
1 Answers
3.66K Views
Is intellectual property a commodity?

Is intellectual property considered a commodity? Can intellectual property be bought and/or sold like other commodity type goods?

asked May 12 '11 at 23:36
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Oshirowanen
201 points

38 Votes
11 Answers
17.8K Views
What if Google+ stole my idea? Can I do anything about it? Should I?

From around March 2009 to October 2009, my sister and I built a website and dubbed it our "first startup": Jumpino.com. Truthfully, it was hardly a startup: we had no capital, no way of monetizing,...

asked Jul 5 '11 at 05:46
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David Titarenco
405 points

0 Votes
1 Answers
2.59K Views
Ownership of Intellectual Property of a co-Founder

If I, by myself have programmed a website with a lot of contents, I want to start a c-corp to run this website. I will own majority of the shares but there will also be a marketing person and a...

asked Dec 4 '13 at 07:09
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User26315
6 points

0 Votes
1 Answers
2.51K Views
What happens to intellectual property after incorporation?

If two people are working together on a project, and create things like logos, brands, etc, and then at a later point they incorporate the business, what happens to the intellectual...

asked Nov 24 '13 at 07:09
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Sherwin Flight
104 points

1 Votes
4 Answers
4.83K Views
What stops another company from copying your idea?

I got asked this question at a local venture conference recently when pitching our product. I've heard this question a handful of times and I really would like to get some honest feedback on the...

asked Oct 1 '13 at 12:19
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George Mc Dowd
109 points

3 Votes
2 Answers
6.71K Views
How long after employment termination is it OK to file the patent for an idea being developed after leaving employer?

An idea came to me while I was employed. The idea is within my broader field of expertise, but completely unrelated to the projects I was doing for my employer. I started working on the idea after...

asked Sep 13 '13 at 08:20
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D. Terry
16 points

0 Votes
1 Answers
2.37K Views
What kind of license am I looking for for free fonts to use in my app?

I'm an ios developer and created an app which allows the user to add different texts and reposition them. I would like to provide my users with a premium feature which is a font pack. I'm looking...

asked Sep 18 '13 at 15:24
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Vondip
584 points

1 Votes
1 Answers
2.79K Views
Domain Name Transfer to former employer

I was the original registrant and owner of the domain name my (former) company website. The company never "acquired" nor did I assign it to the company. The company is now threatening that I should...

asked Aug 31 '13 at 10:41
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Gupshup
52 points

0 Votes
2 Answers
2.54K Views
Using OSS libraries in my product - will that protect from patent litigation?

I am working on an innovative product that uses a GNU GPL licensed library and per GPL needs open-source my work as well. Could that protect me from patent litigation? I am worried since my former...

asked Sep 2 '13 at 12:52
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Gupshup
52 points