What I've seen work: everyone who worked on it has full rights to the IP generated by that team (so if there's a split of opinion on how to proceed, separate team members are free to fork). Then you can move forward with the team members who want to continue and agree equity going forward on the same basis as any other startup.
Can you expand a little on the IP part. I was at the same Startup Weekend, which the Talkible guys certainly deserved to win.
My team is getting together this week to have "the talk" about moving forward. Our idea is has a ton of IP but know that not everyone wants to move forward and/or work with each other.
Additionally, I came up with a pivot while working on this one that is related but certainly different. I have not shared it with the rest of my group yet(mostly because I thought of it 2hrs before we had to present), would they have any claim to that IP if I ran with it?
In terms of code, graphics, etc. there are two common approaches:
1) Release everything generated on the weekend into public domain or under a general free licence (LGPL, Creative commons) that for practical purposes let's everyone use what was generated.
2) Draft an agreement which says something along the lines of "anyone in this group is granted a perpetual licence to use the IP generated on the weekend for whatever purpose they see fit"
What you want to avoid doing is granting equity based upon IP created on the weekend, that will just cause you a nightmare down the line. Equity should only be given to people who are making a long term commitment to the project, and use cliffs, etc.
Typically IP only covers code, design, etc. it doesn't cover ideas, so an idea for a pivot wouldn't be protected by IP law regardless of who came up with it or where. If you decide to build a startup based on your pivot idea just don't use any code, designs, etc. from the weekend unless you've got some kind of agreement in place for it.
Comments
Any recommendations for when to make this distribution decision? If applicable, what have other (successful) startup weekend guys done?
What I've seen work: everyone who worked on it has full rights to the IP generated by that team (so if there's a split of opinion on how to proceed, separate team members are free to fork). Then you can move forward with the team members who want to continue and agree equity going forward on the same basis as any other startup.
Can you expand a little on the IP part. I was at the same Startup Weekend, which the Talkible guys certainly deserved to win.
My team is getting together this week to have "the talk" about moving forward. Our idea is has a ton of IP but know that not everyone wants to move forward and/or work with each other.
Additionally, I came up with a pivot while working on this one that is related but certainly different. I have not shared it with the rest of my group yet(mostly because I thought of it 2hrs before we had to present), would they have any claim to that IP if I ran with it?
In terms of code, graphics, etc. there are two common approaches:
1) Release everything generated on the weekend into public domain or under a general free licence (LGPL, Creative commons) that for practical purposes let's everyone use what was generated.
2) Draft an agreement which says something along the lines of "anyone in this group is granted a perpetual licence to use the IP generated on the weekend for whatever purpose they see fit"
What you want to avoid doing is granting equity based upon IP created on the weekend, that will just cause you a nightmare down the line. Equity should only be given to people who are making a long term commitment to the project, and use cliffs, etc.
Typically IP only covers code, design, etc. it doesn't cover ideas, so an idea for a pivot wouldn't be protected by IP law regardless of who came up with it or where. If you decide to build a startup based on your pivot idea just don't use any code, designs, etc. from the weekend unless you've got some kind of agreement in place for it.