The IP Practitioner's Guide to Working with Startups

• Author: Natalie Alfaro Gonzales - Steve Maule
• Position: Natalie Alfaro Gonzales is a senior associate with Baker Botts L.L.P. in Houston, Texas, and an adjunct professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center. She advises startups in various stages of growth, and serves as a judge for business plan competitions involving startups. She can be reached at natalie.gonzales@bakerbotts.com. Steve ...
• Pages: 9-13

Published in Landslide® magazine, Volume 10, Number 6, a publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL), ©2018 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.

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By Natalie Alfaro Gonzales

and Steve Maule

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has

described his organization’s position

on innovation as “stubborn on vision

... exible on details.”1 It seems

intuitive that a successful strategy for start-

ups includes exible business solutions

and innovation, but it is just as impor-

tant for legal practitioners counseling

startups to be “exible on details.” In

dealing with startups, the rapid pace of

development and frequent changes in

market conditions typically demand

more exibility than when deal-

ing with a more mature company.

Intellectual property (IP) prac-

titioners counseling startups

should be prepared to adapt to

these frequent changes and

deal with IP issues beyond

prosecution of intellec-

tual property and litigation.

To best serve startups, IP

practitioners should be

stubborn in their pursuit of solu-

tions for startups, yet exible and holistic

in assessing the specic legal strategies and solutions

suitable for each company. That is, an IP practitioner should

be prepared to leverage all IP types—patents, copyrights, trade

and service marks, and trade secrets—when advising startups.

Further, an IP practitioner should shift his or her focus to meet

the demands of the startup’s market, product, nancial posi-

tion, and legal circumstances. The key to dealing with startups

is recognizing there is never a one-size-ts-all solution.

The IP Practitioner’s

Guide to Working

with Startups