Business Relationships - Any Advice?

So I started a business with a good friend of mine, and he has been out in the world talking to people and making contacts - unfortunately, we think some of our tech may have been used and patented by other companies.

I have also recently started on a project where the intellectual property might be worth something, as it is gathering interest. Once again, I have a business partner who I trust completely - but other people are going to get involved.

I guess two questions - would doing something like sending a .pdf file to myself in my e-mail be enough proof that the concepts were under copywright? Does anyone remember the old method of copywrighting where you mail yourself something and the date stamp on the envelope was enough to prove it in court?

Why not use your own e-mail records for the same thing? Does anyone know about this?

At any rate, the main concern I have is proper etiquette. I hate the feeling of not being open with people or them not being open with me, and being paranoid and unsure about what is appropriate or not -

Any suggestions? The marketing manager I work with is having everyone write personal mission statements that include any hidden agendas they might have, for example, so they are out in the open and can be worked with instead of finding out about them later.

Also, really dumb not to just have Open Source stuff, it would be so much less of a headache.

That's something you need to be discussing with a lawyer, not ATS...

but if I had to guess, I'd say as long as you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it's copyrighted, it is.
So emailing it would possibly work. But i would assume you would also have to publish it. If you write a movie, and email it to yourself, but never publish it, and some movie developer comes up with same idea....i don't think it'll be good for you.

Yeah, get a lawyer and don't ask the relationships forum of ATS. But i would say just hit it and quit it then move on to something else.

Hey if anyone is interested, I wrote out a lot of ideas into a Word file including pictures, and wrote this at the end:

(c) July 3, 2013, (Band Name)
(My Name) – Creative Designer / Musician
(Singer's Name) – Creative Designer / Lead Singer / Lead Lyricist / Lead Vocalist
(Artist's Name) – Lead Artist

E-mail documentation of this .pdf has been sent to my personal e-mail account as well as [email protected] for a time date stamp.

Best Regards!
- (My Name)
-(Band Name)

Then I converted it to .pdf and saved it to my pc and sent it off. It looks super professional!



Feel free to use it if you ever want to, thanks guys!

reply to post by Ghost375


Actually, it was ruled in court once that mailing something to you in an unopened package was sufficient for copyright protection. The package had to be unopened because of possible tampering -

So I don't think it would be that hard to use that previous court case in a new court case in order to justify the system I mentioned. So, in all likelihood, it may be good enough! :-)

reply to post by darkbake

Business Relationships - Any Advice?,

Try not to have an affair with your business,but with your secretary it's ok,give everything to your business but not to your secretary and in the end keep your secretary secret and your business open wide.

That's a lot of legal questions that can be hard to answer on many different levels.
Interpretation of Intellectual property alone can have multi-layers of exactly what is written as YOUR property.

A patent application or patent pending can be costly. I've seen many people spend so much money trying to protect their product worldwide, but run out of money in the process.

There are different levels of intellectual property rights and protected patent rights you really should sekk professional legal support.

I won't promote any one attorney to help explain fee's and protection. I WILL tell you there are Lawyers in Washington D.C that offer free consultation and advise you how to protect yourself Continent by Continent and what fee's are incurred for global protection.
Google flat fee Washington lawyers for patents. I have no loyalty to any of them. I do not represent them.
I have personally had great results with honesty,guidance and answers.
Figure THAT from a D.C lawyer.

I happen to be a New Product Development specialist. It's what I do. Made in America, China, Consumer Markets, Etc. I work with people and companies at many different levels of progress.

Good Luck

You might want to check out a few books on starting your own business before hiring a lawyer. They tend to specialize and you want one that knows your business well. Best friends can quickly become worst enemies when money gets involved - be sure everything is above board and understood in advance. If you can share the burdens as well as the profits things should be fine.

In my state of Virginia oral contracts are not legally binding. Verbal agreements don't cut it. Get it all in writing. As for copyright just look up the office website. It used to be you had to mail a hard copy of music or art and $25. I've done it for both and it's easy.

I hope everything works out well for you Darkbake.

Originally posted by piequal3because14
reply to post by darkbake

 

Business Relationships - Any Advice?,

Try not to have an affair with your business,but with your secretary it's ok,give everything to your business but not to your secretary and in the end keep your secretary secret and your business open wide.

Ha! That made me laugh! Thanks, that is super awesome advice dude!

reply to post by niceguybob


Thank you so much! That is amazing advice! I will look into it, you're awesome!

Do the registered letter thing. If nothing else, it's a cheap option that cements a timeline. E-mail may be seen as too easy to tamper with.

In my opinion copyright is a matter of law, not a matter of business relationships. The area of law with which you need to be concerned is about intellectual property, how that intellectual property is protected, how credit for an idea or a product is attributed, and to whom.

As has been mentioned by previous posters, this is a matter for a lawyer, not the membership here. I can give you hints and tips on customer relations, dealing with fellow employees in the work place, how to juggle a complicated family business and the different levels of personal involvement which come up in such relationships, but I cannot help with what amounts to a legal matter.

Regarding open source, if your business involves the creation of a product, rather than the offering of a service, then open sourcing it means that things will become more complicated when time comes to reap the rewards, thats all I know.

reply to post by darkbake

Ha! That made me laugh! Thanks, that is super awesome advice dude!

Glad I could be a help,only I cannot change my post now because has exceed necessary time to do so,

because I should have said keep your secretary open wide and your business secret.