Author: Aindrila Mitra

Most startups build something new. Code, models, hardware, data systems, workflows. All of it has value. The hard part is not building it. The hard part is letting people use it without losing control. That is where dual-licensing comes in. Dual-licensing is one of the most powerful, least understood tools startups use to grow fast…

Copyleft sounds scary. It is not. It is simply a set of rules about what happens when you use certain open source code in your product. These rules can help you or hurt you, depending on what you are building and how fast you are moving. If you are a founder, engineer, or inventor, you…

Most founders pick an open-source license the same way they pick a default setting. Fast, casual, and without thinking much about what it really does to their product, their company, or their future options. That one choice can quietly decide who can copy your work, who can sell it, whether investors get nervous, and whether…

If you are building a startup today, you are using open source. There is no way around it. Your code, your stack, your cloud tools, your AI models, even your testing tools are built on top of open-source software. This is a good thing. Open source lets you move fast, save money, and build better…

When a big company knocks on your door and says they want to talk about FRAND, things get serious very fast. One wrong email. One weak agenda. One missing document. And suddenly you are not negotiating anymore. You are reacting. That is how founders lose leverage before the first call even starts. This guide exists…

Standards change. Quietly at first. Then all at once. One year, your technology fits the standard perfectly. The next year, a small update rolls out, and suddenly your patent no longer lines up the way you thought it did. Nothing broke. No warning sirens. But the value of your Standard Essential Patent just slipped. This…

Let’s get straight to it. If you are building something new, the size of your license matters just as much as the idea itself. Choose too small, and you box yourself in. Choose too big, and you may waste time, money, and leverage you did not need to give up. This choice can shape your…

If you own standard-essential patents, you already know this truth: the value is not just in having patents. The value is in keeping the right ones alive, clean, and ready to be enforced or licensed at the exact moment they matter. Most SEP portfolios do not fail because the tech is weak. They fail because…

If you are building real tech, not slides, not hype, but actual systems that talk to other systems, then standard setting groups already affect you. Even if you have never heard of them. Even if you never planned to deal with them. The moment your product touches wireless, networking, video, hardware, or core software, you…

Let’s start with the truth most founders never hear early enough. If your product touches standards like 5G, Wi-Fi, video, or codecs, you are already on someone’s radar. Not because you did something wrong. Not because you copied anyone. Simply because standards attract patents, and patents attract money. This article is about a quiet but…