I gave on a talk on Intellectual Property Law for Startup at a firechat sessions titled “Bridge the Gap between Startups and the Law” organised by BurgieLaw held at the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) on 9 May 2016.
Subsequent to the firechat session, I was featured in The Star in their article “Don’t be penny-wise, startups: lawyers“. An extract of the article produce below:-
Intellectual Property lawyer Foong Cheng Leong said he often got queries from startups on how to protect their ideas.
“It’s usually quite reasonable, but sometimes they try to protect things that can’t be protected,” he said, adding that abstract ideas and business concepts could not be shielded with a patent.
He advised companies to research what they expected from a lawyer, as well as the lawyer’s credentials, before arranging a meeting. This would ensure the lawyer had the correct skill sets.
He noted that many local lawyers were geared to common transactions like property and sale and purchase agreements, and not many had explored tech-related laws.
With 11 years in the industry, Foong said he had seen his share of cases where businesses try to D-I-Y and drafted their contracts without going to a lawyer, only to end up going to a lawyer anyway after things went wrong.
He said while filing a trademark costs
aroundfrom RM2,000, going to court over a logo or brand name dispute could easily cost more than RM100,000 and take between nine months and a year.Sometimes running lean also means not being penny-wise and pound-foolish.
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