What Is Phantom Equity?

Phantom Equity (“PE”) is a contractual agreement for a type of deferred compensation between a company and key employees, advisors, and/or contractors. Startups can offer PE to valuable employees, so they have skin-in-the-game, and thus, feel an urgency to help the startup become as successful as possible in the shortest amount of time.

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How to Protect Business Ideas?

In the age of instant communication, it’s not easy to protect business ideas. Depending on what kind of information is accessible to others, there are several options available to protect business ideas from being stolen or copied by third parties. If you want to ensure that your business partners or employees do not misappropriate or share important business ideas or information with others, your best bet may be to create an employment agreement/independent contractor agreement and/or a non-disclosure or non-compete agreement that includes certain confidentiality obligations and restrictive covenants in them.

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What is Brand Genericide

Nintendo Genericide picture

Your brand is valuable. Protecting your brand with a registered trademark is important to maximize your brand awareness and protecting consumers from inferior impostors. However, if you fail to enforce your trademark rights when they are violated, you risk losing your brand name to genericide. Protecting your brand from the beginning is essential.

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What is International IP & Why Do You Need It?

The United States has certain registration requirements for copyrights, patents, and trademarks. These requirements make protecting your Intellectual Property (IP) straightforward with good legal representation. However, when you want to operate in a global market, you need to understand international IP protection and registration requirements, which will vary based on the type of IP involved.

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Independent Contractors vs. Employees

Throughout various stages, your startup or small business may work with independent contractors (“I.C.s”) to meet the ever-changing needs of your company. Using I.C.s allows you to pay for services, such as software/app development and sales, without the need to have a fixed employee salary or providing benefits, and thus, potentially saving your business money. However, the IRS has specific guidelines for determining if the people who work for you are I.C.s or if they are really employees.

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