Game Studios Indie Studio Formation and IP: Structuring Your Game Company from Day One Most indie studios ship their first game before signing a single IP assignment agreement — and discover the problem during publisher due diligence. Here's the legal checklist: entity choice, IP assignment, trademarks, contractor agreements, and exit readiness.
Startup Central Legal Planning for First-Time Founders in Their 30s and 40s If you're starting your first company in your 30s or 40s, you're often bringing real career leverage"10+ years of skills, network, and credibility"1and…
Startup Central Broad-Based Weighted Average (BBWA) Anti-Dilution for Startups: Formula, Examples, and Legal Checklist Broad-based weighted average (BBWA) anti-dilution is a common compromise term in venture financings: it protects preferred stock investors if the…
Startup Central Cap Table Essentials: What Every Startup Needs to Track for Clean Equity Records A clean cap table is more than a spreadsheet that “adds up.” It’s the single source of truth tying your company’s ownership to the documents that…
Technology, AI, & Digital Innovation AI Training Data and Copyright: Fair Use, Licensing, and Governance for Model Developers Generative AI is colliding with copyright law in real time. Frontier models are trained on enormous, largely scraped corpora, while authors, artists,…
Startup Central Why fully diluted shares can make or break your equity decisions Most equity confusion starts with a simple denominator problem: founders and early employees look at issued (or even just outstanding ) shares and…
Business Formation & Corporate Governance How Cap Tables Work: A Strategic Guide for Founders and Counsel A capitalization table (or “cap table”) is the living record of who owns your company and how they own it — founders, employees, advisors, and…
Startup Central Essential Legal Strategies for Austin Startups to Manage Business Disputes Effectively For Austin startups and small businesses, a “business dispute” is any conflict that can derail revenue, operations, or relationships — think contract…
Startup Central Catering Contracts for Startups and Small Businesses: A Practical Guide Catering seems simple until it isn't: an event runs late, headcount changes, dietary needs are missed, equipment doesn't arrive, or the venue's rules…
Startup Central 4-Year Vesting With a 1-Year Cliff Explained: A Practical Guide for Founders and Employees In startups, equity is often a core part of compensation — sometimes the main “upside” when cash is tight.
Startup Central How Angel Investors and Legal Counsel Can Partner for Successful Early Rounds Angel money is often the first real “outside capital” a startup takes — capital that comes with expectations, documentation, and a cap table that…
Startup Central Accounting Services Agreements: What Startups Need to Know Before Signing Many startups and small businesses outsource bookkeeping and tax work long before they hire an internal finance team.
Startup Central Understanding 4-Year Vesting with a 1-Year Cliff: A Complete Guide Vesting is the process of “earning” equity over time. In the common 4-year vesting with a 1-year cliff pattern, you don’t earn anything until you hit…
Startup Central Startup Domain Strategy: Trademark Protection, UDRP Disputes, and Defensive Registration Many startups treat a domain as a quick technical purchase — secure the .com , ship the landing page, move on.
Startup Central Why Legal Oversight of Your Startup Cap Table Is Non-Negotiable Early-stage teams often treat the cap table as “whatever’s in Carta” or a living spreadsheet.
Digital Presence & Online Policies Who Needs to Care About the FTC’s Endorsement Guides (and Why) The FTC's Endorsement Guides (16 C.F.R. Part 255) are the rulebook for modern word-of-mouth marketing.
Intellectual Property & Branding Trademark Lifespan and Renewals: A Complete Guide for Startups and Growing Companies For startups and growing companies, a trademark is more than a name or logo — it's a core brand asset that can drive demand, partnerships, and valuation.
Startup Central Building and Managing a Clean Cap Table: A Complete Founder's Guide A capitalization table ("cap table") is simply a running record of who owns your company and what they own — founder shares, employee equity, and…
Business Formation & Corporate Governance Legal Compliance and Strategic Stock Issuance for Startups: A Practical Guide Issuing stock is one of the first consequential legal and financial decisions a startup makes.
Startup Central Startup Brand Protection: Domains, Trademarks, and Enforcement Strategy For most startups, your public brand begins with a name and a domain . That makes early branding decisions unusually visible — and unusually expensive…
AI Law AI Startup Legal Compliance: Where Tech Law, Privacy, and IP Intersect AI-native and data-intensive product design is now the default: LLM features ship behind a toggle, analytics run continuously, and customer data flows…
Business Formation & Corporate Governance Startup Stock Issuance: A Practical Guide to Equity Operations and Compliance For most startups, equity isn't a one-time legal event — it's the operating system you use to pay people, keep teams aligned, and raise capital.
Trademark How Long Do Trademarks Last? Lifespan, Renewal Deadlines, and What Happens If You Miss One Trademarks are often a startup’s most valuable brand asset — and one of the easiest to lose through simple calendar mistakes.
Startup Central Reading the Actual 506(c) Checklist: What "Accredited Investor Verification" Costs You in Time, Fees, and Deal Risk Most founders treat 506(c) as a permissioned version of 506(b). It is not — it is a separate statutory creation with its own verification burden. The checklist: four safe-harbor methods, what each costs, and what the March 2025 SEC no-action letter changed.
AI Law AI-Washing Litigation in 2026: What Public-Company GCs Need to Know On Jan 14, 2025, the SEC charged Presto Automation with the first public-company AI-washing action. Four enforcement surfaces — SEC, plaintiffs' bar, FTC, and EU AI Act — now scrutinize every public AI claim. The GC's pre-clearance workstream is the answer.
