Thanks Ian. I totally agree. For what it's worth, we're not interested in taking the ideas as they are written. They are all in our heads anyway, but just trying to figure out if we'll still have the right to develop similar ideas on our own.
If we happened to think of a great idea under the investor's rule but didn't take it any further, does it preclude us from doing something similar in the future without the investor? This is the question we're trying to answer. We understand there's a lot of grey area here and I'm just trying to think through it. Ultimately, if we did want to use some of these ideas I'm fairly certain we'd be seeking legal advice, but right now while things are up in the air I'm just trying to get a feel for it (rather quickly). On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 10:59 AM, Ian Thomas <[email protected]> wrote: > For my own benefit, I would write down in my own words what I considered > to be the “IP” or ideas of the project / start-up - and then compare the > 1-sentence ideas. **** > > Whatever the eventual situation, you will have to know in your own mind > what the distinctions and overlaps are. **** > > If there are sticking points in the future, you might have thought about > them via this process, and that might make your future ventures less > fraught. **** > > ** ** > ------------------------------ > > **Ian Thomas** > Victoria Park, ****Western Australia******** > ------------------------------ > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Matt Siebert > *Sent:* Tuesday, December 20, 2011 7:55 AM > *To:* ozDotNet > *Subject:* Ideas and IP**** > > ** ** > > Hi all, > > I'm not looking for anything legally binding, but just wondering what is > generally the case with regards to ideas and IP - are ideas considered IP? > or does there need to be some specific detail in order to be protected by > IP law?**** > > ** ** > > For the last 18 months I've been working on a startup with a friend and an > investor. My friend has been an employee in the investor's company from > the start (and years before). Initially I was contracting my spare time to > the investor's company to do the proof of concept and later I commenced > employment with the investor's company in order to work on the new product. > **** > > ** ** > > There have been ups and downs and ultimately the startup has suffered many > losses due to decisions made by the investor against our advice. Right now > the sh*t is beginning to hit the fan and my friend and I have had enough > and are considering leaving and starting our own business in our spare > time. We have no intention to do anything legally or morally wrong. We > won't be working on the same product we've been working on under the > investor's company, but my friend had some ideas for future products that > we would like to use. These are just ideas with a 1 sentence description > and no real details. As such we're unsure where these fall with respect to > IP laws.**** > > ** ** > > In the end, we're looking for ways forward that benefit all parties, but > are quite prepared to just walk away if such a solution cannot be achieved. > **** > > ** ** > > Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I understand it's not legally > binding or anything.**** > > ** ** > > Cheers.**** >
