| Author |
Message |
PeterS (Peters)
Member
Username: Peters
Post Number: 866
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 23, 2003 - 12:30 am: | |
Sean...Art is 100% correct. That is very prudent advice. In Grant's statement, 'confirm that your product or service does not infringe the intelelctual property rights of others', I assumed you have done this. If not, visit www.uspto.gov. There you can check trademarks and patents. Keep in mind that a good patent lawyer can dig into a potential problems deeper, i.e.: patent filings that may not be on the USPTO site yet.
Again, don't be penny wise and pound foolish by not having a good lawyer(s) look over your efforts. They are worth every penny. |
arthur chambers (Art355)
Intermediate Member
Username: Art355
Post Number: 1927
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, June 22, 2003 - 6:38 pm: | |
Sean:
Your particular jurisdiction may have certain requirements that either a corporation or an S Corp may benefit from. I'd also have a lawyer look at the product liability laws, the criteria for piercing the corporate veil, etc. Drafting your own documents usually means money in my pocket because you forget things, then when times change, you have disputes.
Do you have buy-out agreements? What happens if one if you dies, gets divorced, becomes incapacitated? If I had to bet, you addressed none of those issues. Don't get a cheaplawyer. This will take maybe 5 to 10 hours, and I'd buy the best talent can. Each partner should have their own counsel in this drafting process. Hope this helps, I don't do that kind of work.
Good luck.
Art |
Grant T. Langton (Gtl)
New member
Username: Gtl
Post Number: 1
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, June 22, 2003 - 6:27 pm: | |
Sean and/or Peter:
If either of you are involved in a business that includes the manufacturing or launching of a new product and/or service, you may also want to check into whether your product or service is patentable, and confirm that your product or service does not infringe the intelelctual property rights of others.
I am a new member to the site, and a recent Ferrari owner that happens to be a patent and trademark attorney in the Los Angeles area (Century City). I would be glad to field any questions that you may have.
Thanks, Grant ([email protected]) |
PeterS (Peters)
Member
Username: Peters
Post Number: 815
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 20, 2003 - 11:45 pm: | |
Sean..Excellent. Please keep my email handy. You are welcome to contact me at any time and I will help out. I trust your business plan has everything mapped out through at least pre-production. Also, I have a great source on liability insurance. At this stage of your development, make sure you have NDA's ONLY with people you trust. |
Sean F (Agracer)
Junior Member
Username: Agracer
Post Number: 226
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 20, 2003 - 1:48 pm: | |
Taek, We'll be manufacturing a product and there could definitly be liablility (never underestimate the stupidity of people).
I think for the prototype phase (which is technically not started yet) we'll be partners, then switch over to an S-Corp, or LLC (although, from what I've leanred LLC's tend to be much larger).
Thanks
Peter, for reasons I can't explain right now, we're not ready to get that deep into marketing etc. We will be in about 12-months though so I'll keep your address handy.
Thanks |
Taek-Ho Kwon (Stickanddice)
Intermediate Member
Username: Stickanddice
Post Number: 1197
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Friday, June 20, 2003 - 1:02 pm: | |
Sean,
Without knowing what you are doing, may I suggest an LLC (limited liab. company). It addresses a lot of liability issues and is relatively tax friendly. You can also have clean delineations of who's who and who does what in the articles of organization.
Cheers |
PeterS (Peters)
Member
Username: Peters
Post Number: 811
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 20, 2003 - 12:54 pm: | |
Sean...You may reach me at [email protected]. |
PeterS (Peters)
Member
Username: Peters
Post Number: 810
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 20, 2003 - 12:52 pm: | |
Sean...Congrats on your venture. I strongly advise that you have a business lawyer review your proposal between your partner. Don't be penny wise and pound-foolish. You may only need two or three hours of counsel time at $175-$275 per hour. The corporation is prudent because it isolates your other owned property from the business. You will spend in the area of $1200-$1800 to set it up. Do not do this with a low-cost service! Get a REAL lawyer! It will probably not protect your assets against gross misconduct by you and your partner though. Again, you will need to come up with the money and do it right. Product liability insurance may also needed to be look at. In the $4K that you have in your budget, it appears that you will have a few bucks left over.
Please correspond with me regarding any assistance with the business you may need. If it is a product you will be offering, I can certainly throw some time at helping you (no cost) for packaging, artwork, web design, gen marketing, etc. I have made the mistakes that you will probably want to miss! As an example, if you screw up printing, you may have to scrap a couple of thousand dollars of inventory. Also, if you need bar codes, I can help you there. Take a peek at my current business I single-handedly started at www.performancedevices.com. This may give you some ideas and also explain some marketing talent I have.
|
Sean F (Agracer)
Junior Member
Username: Agracer
Post Number: 225
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 20, 2003 - 12:50 pm: | |
I think we're going to start as a partnership, then switch over to an S-Corp.
I've done the research, I'm just looking for other opinions. |
Taek-Ho Kwon (Stickanddice)
Intermediate Member
Username: Stickanddice
Post Number: 1193
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Friday, June 20, 2003 - 12:36 pm: | |
$4k is plenty.
Do some of your own research and figure out what type of company though. It has tax and liability implications. Some cannot turn into others etc.
Cheers |
Sean F (Agracer)
Junior Member
Username: Agracer
Post Number: 224
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 20, 2003 - 11:55 am: | |
A freind and I are starting a business and we've typed up a partnership agreement.
I'm thinking I should have a lawyer review this and was wondering what it may cost me or if any of you would recomend a different arrangment? Someone suggest since we are going to be manufacturing a product, we would limit our liability by forming a corporation instead. Of course having that set up would add to the cost.
I'm not trying to avoid the $$. Just wondering what it might cost me. I think we had bugeted about $4000 for legal fee's in our Business plan. |