Running a Crowdfunding Campaign Without Losing Your IP: A Practitioner's Guide to Filing Timing, Backer Terms, Manufacturing, and Copycats
By Casey Scott McKay ·
This guide is for counsel advising a crowdfunding project, and it is organised around one irreversible event. The campaign launch is a public disclosure of an unreleased product, and every patent and design right outside the grace period jurisdictions disappears that morning. The guide sets out the filing sequence that must precede launch and how to make a provisional actually support what is later claimed. It then covers the freedom-to-operate search that founders never run and that an assertion letter will force, the clearance the campaign content requires, and the platform terms nobody reads. The second half addresses the manufacturing agreement that should be negotiated before the raise rather than after it, the assignment paperwork nobody signed, and the copycat enforcement sequence. It closes with the financing diligence exercise where every shortcut surfaces, and with equity campaigns, which are a different exercise entirely.
IP and Technology > IP and IT in Corporate Transactions | Guide | Published 28 February 2024 - Updated 15 November 2024 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. This guide is for counsel advising a crowdfunding project, and it is organised around one irreversible event. The campaign launch is a public disclosure of an unreleased product, and every patent and design right outside the grace period jurisdictions disappears that morning. It sets out the filing sequence that must precede launch and how to make a provisional support what is later claimed, the freedom-to-operate search founders never run, the clearance the campaign content requires, the platform terms nobody reads, the manufacturing agreement that should be negotiated before the raise, the copycat enforcement sequence, and the diligence exercise where every shortcut surfaces.
Keywords: crowdfunding counsel · pre-launch filing sequence · provisional adequacy · design applications · campaign clearance · freedom to operate · platform content licence · backer updates · manufacturing terms before launch · tooling ownership · copycat takedown sequence · customs recordation · assignment paperwork · export classification · financing diligence
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