Startup IP Checklist

How to use the checklist

Begin with deadlines and ownership. Check an item only when you have located the record or assigned a named next step. Print the worksheet for a consultation.

Checklist items

• Confirm the company’s exact legal name and formation records.
• List each brand, product name, logo, domain, and social handle.
• Record first-use, launch, sale, disclosure, publication, and filing dates.
• Identify every inventor, author, founder, employee, and contractor contributor.
• Locate signed invention, copyright, and trademark assignments.
• Review employment and contractor confidentiality and ownership terms.
• Inventory source code, designs, drawings, datasets, models, and trade secrets.
• Save USPTO and other official filing receipts and identifiers.
• Map supplier, manufacturing, beta, investor, crowdfunding, and public disclosures.
• List open-source, third-party content, data, fonts, images, and software licenses.
• Document access controls and trade-secret handling steps.
• Prepare known disputes, notices, marketplace complaints, and deadlines.
• Match major assets to the company’s fundraising and commercial claims.
• Assign owners and dates for unresolved items.

Notes for counsel

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