intellectual property law

Conflicts in California’s trade secret laws on customer lists create uncertainty

Salespeople planning on jumping ship — and the startups considering hiring them — should be informed about the current legal landscape.

Google launches the Open Usage Commons, a new organization for managing open-source trademarks

Google, in collaboration with a number of academic leaders and its consulting partner SADA Systems, today announced the launch of the Open Usage Commons, a new organization that aims to help open-sour

Kobalt’s edge in changing the music industry

Kobalt Music Group is driving the music industry to provide more transparency and faster royalty payments to musicians and challenging the traditional record labels and publishers with its own alterna

IP strategy: How should startups decide whether to file patents

Bryant Lee, Ed Steakley & Saleh Kaihani Contributor Bryant Lee is the co-founder and managing partner of Cognition IP, a YC-backed IP law firm for startups. Ed Steakley was the Head of IP at Airwa

Leaving for a competitor? Onboarding new employees? Avoid accusations of trade secret theft

When a company hires talent away from a competitor, onboarding the new employee can pose significant legal risks for both the company and the new employee. A fundamental aspect of Silicon Valley is...

Google Cloud, McDonald’s big tech acquisition, and motivating an engineering team

Our live conference call on Google Cloud Next Last week at its conference in San Francisco, Google Cloud unveiled a bevy of new features, and we also got to hear for the first time from its head honch