PIIAA
The Proprietary Information and Invention Assignment Agreement
Safeguard your business Ownership with a PIIAA contract
The PIIAA Contract, also known as the Proprietary information and Invention Assignment Agreement is the most important business document, about which you have never heard. Think of the PIIAA as the ownership documents to your business secrets, methods, and intellectual assets. The business lawyers at Whale.Law have created some of the legal industries best custom tailored PIIAA agreements. The PIIAA is not just some form. A targeting PIIAA will greatly increase your business’ value. A targeted PIIAA consistently implemented will safe you many headaches and much money.
Will You Potentially Sell, Merge, or be Acquired in the Future?
Many business owners, especially founders and early investors, dream of a big pay out once the business becomes profitable. Investors often come in and offer to purchase a share of the company’s equity in exchange for money.
Many businesses grow to a point where a merger or acquisition becomes necessary to continue business expansion.
Successful businesses often license off their intellectual property and business methods so others may use their work and the business gets a portion of those profits.
None of these scenarios is possible unless you can establish you actually own what you are selling.
Who is to say it does not belong to the founder and not the business corporation?
Who is to say a former employee who helped create does not still own it?
Does a former contractor, or sub-contractor actually own the work you hired them to create?
Do all the names match up?
How many would you be missing?
The merger, acquisition, sale or investment may fall through because of this small but critical oversight. This is why is it important to create effective PIIAA agreements early, and require all employees and contractors to sign one.
Does your Disgruntled Former Employee Own Your
Business Secrets?
In many jurisdictions, co-inventors have equal undivided rights to the invention. This means if an employee was a one percent (1%) contributor to a business method, that employee can license, sell, or otherwise make money from your businesses proprietary assets as of they were a 100% owner! You think that never happens? It does.
You think a Judge will, at worst, apportion ownership based upon percent of contribution? Do not wager the fate of your business on what some other person might think is fair. Avoid this harmful fate with a PIIAA contract.
The Courts do not apportion parental rights over children that way
The Courts do not divide assets in divorces that way
Do not put yourself or your business in that position. The PIIAA proprietary information and invention assignment agreement solves this problem before it becomes one.
Contact Us, the Crypto Lawyers at Whale.Law if your startup business needs a PIIAA to add to its value and prepare for investor documentation.
Let us take a quick look at the best options for your business to protect its property, increase its market share, and keep its profits.
Trial lawyer Matt Hamilton graduated from the University of Missouri – Columbia in 1995 with Science degrees in Logistics, Marketing, and Business Administration.
Matthew J. Hamilton Juris Doctor & Crypto Lawyer