All legal aspects of a business including incorporation, intellectual property and contracts
3
votes
2answers
195 views
What are the variables that I must consider in putting together the accounting and legal fees budget?
I am estimating the total amount I need to spend to get things started the right way, but I can't figure out how much I should allocate for accounting and legal services.
My startup will be ...
3
votes
3answers
363 views
partnership percentages
I am a Product designer with 25 years in the field. I also have an extensive array of skill sets as well as facility. Computerized Milling, Engineering and Development software as well as Rapid ...
3
votes
2answers
214 views
Registering a trademark for a web application
I have just build a web app called XYZ (the actual name is different).
It is going quite well. I am getting quite a lot of users worldwide.
I was getting worried I should register the name as a ...
3
votes
2answers
195 views
Specific startup tax question and other starting advice
I'm in the process of creating a startup. Right now it's just a series of apps in the iTunes app store but there's a ton more I want to do with it. The apps were made available for sale almost 3 ...
3
votes
4answers
476 views
Bylaws for a startup corporaton
Are there any resources to help a startup to customise their bylaws?
Often when one uses a service to form a corporation they provide a boiler plate set of bylaws as part of the package, but I would ...
3
votes
3answers
809 views
Startup LLC, tax time HELP, anyone?
I registered my company as an LLC last February(2009). Since that time, I've had a lot of expenses, but no revenue because it's not quite completely up and running.
How should I file my taxes now? ...
3
votes
1answer
70 views
Operational email policy
We've recently launched a platform and we start aquiring emails from users, partly from facebook and partly on their own merit.
We want to start sending operational emails to our users, for example: ...
3
votes
1answer
92 views
What are the types of businesses allowed to petition foriegn employees
I have a person from Belgium with exceptional skills and work ethics who i want and trust to work for me.
This person can and is willing to help with my company by investing and doing the speciality ...
2
votes
6answers
994 views
Validity of Shareholder Agreement
We are a newly formed corporation in NY and have just drafted our first shareholders' agreement. There are five shareholders in all but only four of us have signed the agreement. We are acting as if ...
2
votes
5answers
319 views
Did you use an incorporation service? What service did you use?
There are a good amount of services that help you incorporate your startup for S Corp, C Corp or LLC, like Incorporate.com and Agents & Corporations. They help you put together the documents you ...
2
votes
4answers
224 views
Any good guides on starting out as consultant?
Okay, so my reason for wanting to become a consultant is so it's easier for communication between my clients and future clients. Right now, I've sold myself as a 3 employee start up company, but ...
2
votes
3answers
244 views
If the agreement states IP is owned by the Consultant, is there any room for disagreement?
I am in the process to send a service agreement to my clients. I am stating that Intellectual Property related to all promotional material created while in the service agreement by my company will be ...
2
votes
4answers
276 views
Is it fair use/protected use to use a registered trademark on my website
We provide software that can measure performance of another company's product which happens to be trademarked (word/phrase - not a symbol). We want to name it specifically.
Is this protected/fair ...
2
votes
2answers
570 views
How do I protect my idea before launching my web-service?
I have a unique idea about a web-service.
How do I protect against duplicating my idea before launching?
I'm afraid I'd end up rivaling against massive number of competitors like Groupon does now.
I'm ...
2
votes
3answers
2k views
Does someone violate copyright laws when quoting song lyrics?
I know there are tons of sites out there that list song lyrics that are surrounded with advertisements and pop up ads. I don't imagine the song writers had this in mind when they were writing their ...
2
votes
6answers
5k views
Is there a patent on Groupon.com?
I am thinking about starting a niche collective buying website in the US that is similar to Groupon.com
Is Groupon patented? Is it legal to create a competitor website?
2
votes
5answers
2k views
Is it possible to open a US bank account if you not US resident?
Related to this question here, if I'm not a US permanent resident, is it possible for me to get an account in US banks? If possible, what are the prerequisites? Has anyone been in this situation ...
2
votes
4answers
128 views
Can I have different co founders on different parts of the company?
I want to launch different web services which have different co founders under one company, And still keep them separated from each other? for example should one of the apps not do so well I don't ...
2
votes
4answers
2k views
Templates for privacy policy / terms of use for a Web Application
Is there a good resource for templates for those documents?
2
votes
2answers
539 views
Where am I “doing business” if I only have a website and I (potentially) sell to companies all over the world?
This is spawned from @Dana Shultz's answer to this question.
from this portion of his answer:
...if you incorporate elsewhere but do
business in CA, you will need to
register in CA, too...
...
2
votes
5answers
269 views
When do I worry about the legal stuff?
I heard somewhere that you don't have a business unless you are making money and you need to worry about legal stuff only then. Is this true?
Am I eventually going to need to get help with terms ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views
Intellectual property - Employee Agreement
I work for an employer in the recruitment advertising industry and I'm pretty sure I've signed an agreement that mentions my employer has rights to intellectual property for anything I work on while ...
2
votes
6answers
1k views
Reasonable budget to prepare a shareholder agreement
What's a reasonable budget for forming a proper shareholder agreement in a new start up, formed as a corporation to be owned between 4 founder/shareholders? I understnad there's some variation ...
2
votes
4answers
101 views
Pitfalls of using an online service to form an S-Corp
My company (or soon to be) is looking at becoming an S-Corp. Right now most of our funds are tied up in the company and we can't really afford to hire an attorney to do the work for us. Can we get by ...
2
votes
1answer
108 views
What should I watch out for when closing an LLC?
I'm declaring one of my startups kaput and moving on to another. The first venture, Stronico Contact Management, was an llc and had a ten percent partner. We declared it closed by mutual agreement ...
2
votes
3answers
896 views
What is a legal entity, specifically in Apple's terms?
What exactly is a legal entity?
I am trying to form a sole-proprietorship company in the state of California. Is this
considered a legal entity? How can I set up the name for this company, other than ...
2
votes
3answers
129 views
Is it necessary to use a law firm to file a trademark?
Just got quoted 3k from our legal team to file for a trademark. They cited their search report was much more thorough than what we could do on our own. Anybody filed successful trademarks on their ...
2
votes
3answers
275 views
LLC, 3 members, 1 wants out
I am a member of an LLC along with two others. We each own 33% of the company and have invested very little.
One of the three members has expressed interest in cashing out, severing all ties to the ...
2
votes
3answers
303 views
How does a co-founder protect against being terminated and losing unvested equity?
If there's a Founder's Agreement in place with a vesting schedule, how does one actually go about firing a co-founder such that he loses his unvested equity?
For a three person startup (split ...
2
votes
3answers
143 views
Legal Implications of hosting your website with a hosting company
I'm not sure if my question is a bit paranoid, but still need to at least hear that I am, if so.
I am considering starting a little software development company. Initially I want to host a small ...
2
votes
1answer
169 views
Can a company be guilty of monopolizing just by being very successful?
I don't know if this is the right place, but in our startup, we were discussing the distant future for us. Suppose a software company just sells superior software a low cost and overall becomes the ...
2
votes
1answer
179 views
I was just offered a position as cofounder of a startup with someone who I have not known previously are there any legal steps to take?
I was just offered a position as cofounder of an already established startup. The revenue on it is minimal. This was the first I had met the founder. Are there any legal steps or other steps I should ...
2
votes
4answers
259 views
Is cartooning/illustrating trademarked logo/products legal?
I'm planning to hire an illustrator to illustrate in cartoon style images that may include trademarked logo or popular products. The purpose would not be to sell these art for money, but rather just ...
2
votes
4answers
415 views
steps/tips to create an online company
A friend of mine and I are planning to start a new company in the US. He and I are full time employees on different companies, but we are planning to invest out of work hours/weekends to start our new ...
2
votes
3answers
233 views
Is there an online network of independent lawyers looking for one-off or quick work?
I'm looking for a network that matches lawyers to people looking to get a contract written or have a bit of legal work done. I know there are lots of freelancing sites and networks out there for logo ...
2
votes
5answers
1k views
Can I have two different websites using the same PayPal account?
I have one site up that is struggling to find a MVP and getting dangerously close to running out of cash.
I have PayPal set up under that entity. However, now, I'd like to create a separate website ...
2
votes
3answers
158 views
What type of legal agreement makes sense for joint venture?
I have a reseller who would like to buy a licensed version of our software product and share the revenues we make on the joint sale of the product within a specific territory.
What type of agreement ...
2
votes
3answers
2k views
Mutual or Unilateral NDA?
Which do you think is better to begin a relationship with a vendor/contractor or partner/co-founder? What are some of the advantages or disadvantages of choosing one over the other?
Thanks
2
votes
3answers
428 views
I might be leaving a startup I co-founded. What are my options?
I co-founded a startup and have been with them for almost a year now. I own around 40 percent of the company, which is to be vested over 3 years. So far, about 1/3 of it has been vested. On top of ...
2
votes
1answer
96 views
Ethicality of hiring a former student?
Background: I'm both administrative staff for a university, and I'm the owner of a small business. I've been working with a particular student at the university on some university grant work, and ...
2
votes
1answer
945 views
Need a terms of service generator for a web design startup
Does anybody know a good terms of service generator? I need one that, besides inserting company name and etc, will outline my and my customers' rights so I don't have to read the whole thing. I'm only ...
2
votes
4answers
265 views
Approach copyright holders to licence IP for my game
I built an electronic version of a popular board game. I got some good responses on avoiding legal issues, but I went ahead and built it anyway, keeping it private for obvious reasons. Everyone who ...
2
votes
4answers
254 views
startup credit card issues
So here's the issue, I need to accept credit cards on my site, but I don't want to go through a merchant service, I want to go through visa/ amex/etc directly (it's a long story..). Now, to even get a ...
2
votes
4answers
407 views
Is it ok to aggregate headlines and republish them?
I have an idea for a web app that will target to a specific audience and will collect news and blog articles, analyze them (for keywords, trending topics and more) and then display the article ...
2
votes
6answers
222 views
What do I need to do legally for an evening and weekends web startup? (UK)
I'm currently working on a web app and associated blog, mainly for experience in web design and marketing, but also to hopefully make a bit of extra money on the side.
I work full time so this is an ...
2
votes
2answers
94 views
Naming your company/product after a Google Productm literal naming
Hypothetical, to protect the innocent :)
Let's say Google has a product called "Stock Manager". Technically, they call it "Goole Stock Manager". After a trademark search turns up 0 results for ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
Protections for minority shareholder in SHA (shareholders agreement)
We are in early startup phase. One founder has a big majority stake and we are co-founders with small 5 minority stake. We have good relations and we are happy with the stakes, but we would like to ...
2
votes
3answers
112 views
Working with competitor until launch
I am currently generating the majority of my income from providing freelance support, development and consultancy time to users of another companies software product.
I work directly with companies ...
2
votes
3answers
91 views
Software content/output ownership
Does a ISV have the right to add a watermark to the export of users content, like video, images or pdf’s for paid noncommercial users?
The idea is to prevent commercial users creating and selling ...
2
votes
3answers
135 views
How much equity should I give our first investor/legal advisor?
I'm currently starting up a mobile social networking application with zero funding. The app is currently in the mvp stage with a very thorough business plan, and my business partner and I are ...
