I don’t have the time or interest to look at the latest in the Winkelvoss and Ceglia vs Facebook/Zuckerberg sagas. But even just the headlines serve as good reminders that as an entrepreneur you need to know some things about IP law so that you don’t run afoul of it.
In particular, I continue to meet people starting businesses while employed elsewhere without having looked at their employment agreements. That is not a good idea as these run the gamut from letting you do what you want (as long as it is on your own time) to everything you come up with belongs to the company (even if it has nothing to do with their business).
Another potential trap are loosely structured or non-existent agreements with co-founders / early contributors about IP ownership. These too can come back to bite you in a major way. So please, please when you start something always think about who you work for and who works for you.
As an aside, there are a lot of useful things that entrepreneurs should know about legal matters. By that I don’t mean becoming a trained lawyer, but rather knowing where you can run aground. Somebody should compile a list of the best blog posts on this subject as a course!
