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Choice of Business Entity for Technology Startup
In Canada business entities considered by entrepreneurs include: (1) sole proprietorships, (2) partnerships and limited partnerships and (3) corporations. Each of these entities has advantages as well as disadvantages. Choice of the entity is usually not irrevocable, and often an initial decision will be made with the understanding that, at the appropriate time, a different form of organization will be used.
Protection of Intellectual Property in Technology Startup
Aside from competence of management team, control of intellectual property is a major focus of investor scrutiny. The ability to identify and protect intellectual property directly reflects on investor confidence and the resulting access to capital available to technology start-up. Protection of intellectual property assets is available through the law of copyright, trade secrets, patents and trademarks.
Fees
Pinsky Law, Patent & Trademark Agents, is a business, technology and intellectual property law firm providing a range of corporate and commercial services to support companies involved in the development, distribution and use of technology and intellectual property assets. By specializing in this area of law, we obtain a proficiency and knowledge that results in a substantial cost-savings to our clients.
Clients have come to us from from other firms and lamented about the billing policies they endured. As a client of the Firm you do not pay for basic business, technology and intellectual property law research. We do not charge our clients to maintain our knowledge of the law and procedure. Furthermore, due to the wide range of business and intellectual property matters we handle, it is quite common that we have dealt with the same issue before. Accordingly, we can appropriate much of our existing work to handle the new matter.
Billing Process
Our rates are approximately one-half the rates of our peers at large firms for most client matters. How? We leveraged technology, and we eliminated the high overhead, inexperienced lawyers, and pyramid leverage of the traditional law firm's business model to maximize value for our clients. We have a simple philosophy when approaching fees and billing - we treat our clients' money like we would treat our own. Unlike large, general practice law firms we do not separate the billing department from the legal department. We are accountable for the work and fees we bill. There must always be meaningful and clear value to the work that is billed. If not, such charges will not be incurred.
Advance of Fees
Before we begin work on behalf of clients, we require an advance payment of fees. The advance payment is placed in the Firm's trust account and serves as a source of payment for all or part of the Firm's account or accounts when rendered. Clients are asked to replenish the trust account from time to time. Any unused portion will be returned to clients upon completion of a project. Trademark, patent and copyright applications all require payment of government fees. Prior to any filing of trademark, patent and copyright applications, all government fees must be deposited in the Firm's trust account.
Time Billing
The time billing fees are based principally on the time spent by the Firm on behalf of clients. Minimum billing increment is six (6) minutes. Records of all time are kept and accounts are then prepared and sent to clients periodically.
Flat Fees
As we noted above, our practice encounters the same issues and procedures repeatedly. While the client might be new to corporate or patent or trademark application process, we are experienced. The Firm and our longstanding clients have a strong preference to utilize a flat-fee billing whenever possible. Accordingly, we attempt, if we see fit, to prepare flat-fee estimates for work prior to the initiation of the project. Flat fees give clients security in knowing the anticipated costs for matter and promotes efficiency in the legal process. For example, a typical patent application step-by-step flow chart is shown below.
