IP agreement?

[sushant T]

Hi all, 

While JDFi has shut it's doors. making an attempt to get some guidance on IP agreement.

we are working on an amazing social networking website and created most of the front end screens. now we wish to engage freelancer to help us build the backend partially or completely, Given that it's social network, it is complicated and is a huge task to complete in a month or two if we do it ourselves.

Guidance i am looking for:

1. we havent set up a company yet. Hence the question, is it possible to execute IP agreement between individuals?
   
2. How much it may cost in singapore / india?
   
3. Any referrals? we are bootstrapping - dont want /dont have too much money to spend on this.
   

feel free to drop me an email at tsus...@gmail.com.

if you arent comfortable posting in the group.

cheers!

[drllau]

What you are basically asking for is an IP assignment from all founders, employees to the firm, as well as review of the non-compete clauses, and perhaps bad leaver provisions in the founders agreement. 

>  is it possible to execute IP agreement between individuals?

you can have basically a heads of agreement (basically agreement to agree) outlining the general provisions and state that the IP assignments will be to the legal entity once formed. Note that this is not an iron-cast contract to hold up in court but for pre-formation where you don't want too much legal expenses, you just need to outline the major items

> How much it may cost in singapore / india?

ask a lawyer, how long is a piece of string (billable hours light up their eyes)? Singapore is a relatively straight-forward jurisdiction so it depends on the complexity and #documents. However, I found India to be somewhat of a regulatory headache, for example if you wish to invest into an India subsidiary with supposedly assets, you'd need to complete Form 3CEB which the accountants told us required a transfer pricing study ($5k) ... EVERY YEAR (which we disputed). My general suggestion is to use Singapore as IP holding company, licensing the technology & software to subsidiaries through SE asia

> Any referrals? we are bootstrapping - dont want /dont have too much money to spend on this.

I'm an IP paralegal ... though I'm not licensed to practice in SIngapore (or India) I draft the (international) docs for (usually) fixed fee (only for standard docs) and use a local lawyer for the final signoff. 

Lawrence

www.linkedin.com/in/drllau