Transactional Intellectual Property: From Startups to Public Companies

Transactional Intellectual Property: From Startups to Public Companies is the successor to Intellectual Property in Business Organizations: Cases and Materials.

This casebook focuses on the legal problems of businesses that develop and utilize intellectual property as the businesses are founded, financed, expanded, transferred to others, or terminated. The text also addresses the distinctive roles played by intellectual property at three stages of business development:

•  The startup phase (where intellectual property often plays key roles in business formation and venture capital financing);
•  The mid-life phase (where intellectual property is often an important factor in going public or selling a business through a merger into a larger concern); and
•  The mature company phase (where successful firms must deal with problems such as preventing abuses of dominant intellectual property positions and remaining competitive in complex high-tech markets despite being innovators in only small components of those markets).

Intellectual Property in Business Organizations is designed for law students in advanced classes concerning intellectual property, basic and advanced business organizations topics as encountered in connection with intellectual property, and the law of science and technology. This text would also be valuable in courses on technology transfer and licensing, as well as in intellectual property survey courses. It is also suitable for business school students in classes with a substantial focus on legal problems of developing businesses. A strong background in intellectual property law is not assumed. Rather, background material on important intellectual property standards is provided in an appendix to the text. In addition, detailed notes on particular intellectual property laws and legal issues raised in the materials are included with the readings.