What Startup Founders Need to Know About Legal Issues

Entrepreneurs’ Network

PRE-MEETING DINNER at 5:15 PM (sharp) at Bertucci’s, Waltham.

E-Net’s panel of legal experts will discuss fundamental legal issues that founders and executives of early stage companies must address to insure vital protections and the building of value. These issues are compounded by changes in technology, commerce, and the law. What is the preferred form of entity and where should it be established? What is the preferred method to protect the company’s Intellectual Property by use of various forms of patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secrets, either alone or in combination?

How should founders’ equity be apportioned through stock options and what restrictions should apply? What compensation and benefits should be included in employee agreements including consideration of Non – Disclosure Agreements, the changing environment for Non – Compete Agreements, as well as Assignment of Invention Agreements? These issues and their benefits and pitfalls will be discussed and presented with you the business person in mind.

Speakers: Jeremy Cohen, Gesmer Updegrove

Jeremy Cohen is an attorney at Gesmer Updegrove, LLP, a firm specialized in the representation of emerging technology companies. His focus is on business creation and development, transactions and financings, and assisting with any other advice you need to help your business grow. Jeremy’s experiences and background have helped him develop a practice that is broad as well as deep, including: Business formation and organization: advising start-ups on how to best begin their business while looking to future growth. Mergers & Acquisitions: from spin-outs and carve-outs too complex transaction structures or outright sales of companies, Jeremy has experience in a variety of transaction structures and can bring insight and know-how to any situation. Financings: Whether the funding is coming from a bank, a professional investor or a relative, Jeremy can help guide the process to a successful financing.

Mike Attisha, Associate, Wolf Greenfield & Sacks

Mike Attisha is an attorney at Wolf Greenfield, a boutique law firm that is focused entirely on intellectual property. Mike counsels clients on their patent portfolio in a wide range of technology areas, including electronics, additive fabrication (3D printing), display technologies (LCD, OLED, electrophoretic), software, semiconductors, optics, medical devices, electronic music, automated hardware testing, and signal processing. He has an extremely broad technical knowledge drawn largely from his experience working in experimental physics and as a software consultant. Prior to joining Wolf Greenfield, Mike worked at Ab Initio Software assisting clients with their enterprise data processing applications. During his graduate studies at Brown University, Mike worked on the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment located a half mile underground in northern Minnesota.

Shawn Foley, Of Counsel, Burns Levinson

With more than 30 years of experience in the field, Shawn Foley brings refined legal and advocacy skills and technical versatility. His approach to patent procurement is practical, cost effective, distinctly business-oriented and personable. Prior to joining Burns & Levinson, Shawn played an integral role in developing his previous firm’s practice in life sciences and pharmaceuticals. A wide spectrum of clients with diverse technologies and business needs have sought his counsel, including major pharmaceutical and personal care companies, medium-sized brand and generic drug companies, start-ups, universities, and entrepreneurs, both in the U.S. and abroad. Shawn began his career as an examiner with the U.S. Patent Office, where he reviewed patent applications during the emergence of the biotechnology field. After an initial 2-year stint with a leading Southeastern IP firm, he gained valuable corporate experience as counsel for Ciba-Geigy. At Ciba, Shawn was co-in house counsel for its agricultural biotechnology research division (now Syngenta Seeds), where he worked on a daily basis with management and scientists to gain patent protection for transgenic crop seed and to bring these first generation products to market. He also collaborated with colleagues in Switzerland and prosecuted patent applications directed to pharmaceuticals. Thus, Shawn has experienced many different aspects of the patent system. Shawn is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar.

Moderator and Co-Organizer: Bob Weber, Managing Director, Patent Kinetics, LLC

Robert Weber is a successful intellectual property professional, inventor, serial entrepreneur, and management consultant. Presently, he is Managing Director, Patent Kinetics, LLC, a company that helps entrepreneurs and patent owners build and monetize valuable patent portfolios. Weber is an inventor with 28 issued US patents assigned to Intertrust Technologies, where he served as SVP Business and Technology Strategy, 1996-1999. The Intertrust portfolio was characterized in the Wall Street Journal as a once in a generation billion-dollar licensing opportunity. (Intertrust is presently a joint venture of Sony and Philips.) Weber has also been a Principal Consultant at Northeast Consulting Resources, Inc. At NCRI, his consulting practice focused on the intersection of business and technology. Weber divides his time between Boston and Silicon Valley. He is a former Vice Chair, Programs, of the Boston Entrepreneurs Network and is a member of the Advisory Board and Program Committee of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Licensing Executives Society.

Co-Organizer: William R. Byrnes

Bill’s legal practice assists entrepreneurial companies with the legal issues they face with a focus on day-to-day commercial issues involving customers, vendors, and other third party relationships. Bill received his undergraduate degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from Boston University, a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, and a L.L.M. degree in Taxation from Boston University Law School, Graduate Tax Program. He is also a Boston Entrepreneurs’ Network board member.

Meeting Location: Constant Contact, Inc., Reservoir Place, 3rd Floor Great Room, 1601 Trapelo Rd., Waltham, MA (Exit 28B, I-95/Route 128)

Pre-meeting Dinner at 5:15 PM (sharp) at Bertucci’s, Waltham, (Exit 27B, Route 128)

Check for Updates: Boston Entrepreneurs’ Network Website at:

Directions: http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/office-location-waltham.jsp

Reservations: ENET Constant Contact meetings are free to ENET members and $20 for non-members. No reservations are needed for the dinner. To expedite sign-in for the meeting, we ask that everyone — members as well as non-members — pre-register for the meeting online. Pre-registration is available until midnight the day before the meeting. If you cannot pre-register, you are welcome to register at the door.