These contracts implement your initial Intellectual Property (IP) protection, and also your initial relationships with contractors and other third parties

(i) Mutual Non Disclosure Agreement, or NDA, which protects your trade secrets, as well as those of the people you’re dealing with. You can make this “one-way,” meaning that only your start-up’s confidential information is protected, but anyone experienced with her own IP on the other side will want a mutual NDA.

(ii) Consulting Agreement with an independent contractor, including a mutual NDA and a Proprietary Information and Innovation Assignment Agreement. The latter seeks to ensure that your company, the entity paying for the contractor’s services, obtains their benefit in terms of any intellectual property resulting from those services

(iii) Offer Letter for employees, and related Invention Assignment Agreements. Early stage start-ups are not always in a position to begin employing people right away, because of the administrative and financial burdens of doing so relative to engaging independent contractors. If you do, Offer Letters and related Proprietary Information and Innovation Assignment Agreements come with the package.