What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MN
Hello,
I came up with an idea 10 years ago, tinkered for a couple years then decided it had enough merit to get it patented. I formed an S corp with a patent atty "friend" 50/50 (mistake 1) since I had no funds.
Over the next few years we tinkered and filed applications and got issued a number of patents which I blindly agreed to assign to the company(mistake 2) with assurances that since we own the company, we'll still own the patents.
After some unsuccessful attempts at licensing, we had the product professionally designed and crossed paths with some experts in the industry. The "experts" loved the idea, and had friends with $$, but wanted to "run the show" (mistake 3). Money flowed in, however, it flowed out even quicker resulting in another round of Angel financing and more dilution for the founders. Attorney "friend" and "experts" fired me for challenging where the money was being spent, and threatened to remove me from the board of directors (I was one of 5, 2 sharks, patent atty, and his cousin, just naive). That was almost 3 years ago
Next came a "Bridge" note secured by ALL assets of the company to those that participated. I could see the writing on the wall and cashed out my
401K to participate. The silence from the others was deafening.
Spending continued and company ran out of money either by ineptness or design at the end of last year. Now company has been forced into bankruptcy and I will be lucky to get part of my secured "bridge" note back.
Once a patent is assigned, (for $1 and other good and valuable consideration) is there any way to revoke it? I've had about all I can take of the good and valuable consideration, i.e. education at the school of hard knocks.
I'm also wondering if I have grounds to go after attorney "friend" who remained employee/officer of company, general counsel (against my claims of conflict of interest), IP atty, treasurer (after they fired me), and secretary.
If nothing else, thanks for listening, this has been somewhat cleansing.
(note: I also posted this in the patent law forum, sorry for the redundancy, but wasn't sure in which area it belonged)
Hello,
I came up with an idea 10 years ago, tinkered for a couple years then decided it had enough merit to get it patented. I formed an S corp with a patent atty "friend" 50/50 (mistake 1) since I had no funds.
Over the next few years we tinkered and filed applications and got issued a number of patents which I blindly agreed to assign to the company(mistake 2) with assurances that since we own the company, we'll still own the patents.
After some unsuccessful attempts at licensing, we had the product professionally designed and crossed paths with some experts in the industry. The "experts" loved the idea, and had friends with $$, but wanted to "run the show" (mistake 3). Money flowed in, however, it flowed out even quicker resulting in another round of Angel financing and more dilution for the founders. Attorney "friend" and "experts" fired me for challenging where the money was being spent, and threatened to remove me from the board of directors (I was one of 5, 2 sharks, patent atty, and his cousin, just naive). That was almost 3 years ago
Next came a "Bridge" note secured by ALL assets of the company to those that participated. I could see the writing on the wall and cashed out my
401K to participate. The silence from the others was deafening.
Spending continued and company ran out of money either by ineptness or design at the end of last year. Now company has been forced into bankruptcy and I will be lucky to get part of my secured "bridge" note back.
Once a patent is assigned, (for $1 and other good and valuable consideration) is there any way to revoke it? I've had about all I can take of the good and valuable consideration, i.e. education at the school of hard knocks.
I'm also wondering if I have grounds to go after attorney "friend" who remained employee/officer of company, general counsel (against my claims of conflict of interest), IP atty, treasurer (after they fired me), and secretary.
If nothing else, thanks for listening, this has been somewhat cleansing.
(note: I also posted this in the patent law forum, sorry for the redundancy, but wasn't sure in which area it belonged)