Q: We filed a patent application (provisional or non-provisional) and have “patent pending” status. Can we show our product to others without having them sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement)?
A: Yes… more or less. If the most important thing to you is building your company, and you have a well written patent application and thorough IP [...]
Josh Kopelman at First Round Capital has a good post on the value of patents after fighting for 8.5 years to get one of his granted. His Half.com (Ebay.com) patent received six rejections, half of them final, before it was allowed. I explain this to clients, particularly software startups, on a daily basis [...]
My client, On Deck Capital, officially launched today. Their patent pending financial products and technology improves upon standard credit models to offer performance-based loans to businesses that may not have access to traditional bank financing. On Deck Capital offers business loans up to $100,000 based on the performance of the business, rather [...]
It may not have the sexiness of Myspace, or the hype of Youtube, but many a startup could learn something from focused and well executed Meetup.com. Founder Scott Heiferman has been diligently building his company which enables people to find and meet others with shared interests. I have been a member of NY [...]