Author: Aindrila Mitra

Most founders don’t think about patents across borders until it’s almost too late. One day you’re building fast, pushing code, running tests. The next day you realize someone in another country could copy your tech, spin it up, and block you out of a market you planned to enter. That’s usually the moment when international…

Keeping a patent alive should be simple. You built something real. You proved it was new. You went through the long wait to get that approval letter. But after all that work, one small missed payment can make the whole thing fall apart. That’s why maintenance fees and annuities matter so much. They are the…

Turning an idea into real protection shouldn’t feel scary or slow. But for most founders and engineers, the moment they create something new, the clock starts ticking. You know your invention matters. You know it could shape your product, your market, or even your whole company. But proving when you invented something—and getting it filed…

Every founder carries a quiet fear that someone else might use their hard-won ideas before they can. Trade secrets exist to stop that from happening. They protect everything inside your company that gives you an edge—your data, your code, your models, your formulas, your internal methods, your customer insights, even the weird tricks you’ve learned…

When an investor looks at your startup, they don’t just look at your product. They look at your name, your domain, your trademarks, and every piece of brand identity you’ve built. They want to know one thing: Is this brand safe to bet on, or is there a hidden legal mess waiting to explode later?…

Patent battles don’t start the day you get sued. They start long before that—often while your patent is still just an idea on paper. And the biggest risks aren’t the ones most founders expect. The real danger hides in the things you don’t disclose, the things you don’t track, and the things you assume won’t…

Every serious deal—fundraising, partnerships, licensing, M&A—quietly asks the same question: Can you actually use what you built without getting sued? That’s the heart of Freedom-to-Operate. And when a big moment is on the line, no founder wants slow answers, confusing legal speak, or last-minute surprises that tank momentum. You want clarity fast, you want risk…

Most founders don’t think about their patent portfolio until they have to. Maybe a new investor asks about it. Maybe a competitor starts getting close. Maybe a big customer wants proof that your tech is truly yours. And suddenly you’re staring at a stack of filings, old drafts, half-written ideas, and office actions you meant…

When investors look at your startup, they care about one thing even more than your product: who actually owns it. Not the brand. Not the website. The invention under the hood. The thing that makes your company worth funding. And this is where many founders get blindsided. Old contractor agreements. Missing IP assignments. Random open-source…

Open-source feels like magic when you’re building fast. You find a repo, drop it into your stack, ship something new in an hour, and move on. It’s a superpower for early teams because it removes friction and lets you build your product without reinventing the wheel. But the moment you step into a room with…