Valuable expert advise given to Start-ups during the 1st month of Berlin Residency “Taking your Start-up to Europe”.
Actually the representatives of four Start-up companies from EIT ICT Labs Outreach reside in Berlin, receiving intensive coaching by experts and profiting from a unique possibility to make new contracts in one of Europe’s hotspots for IT companies. The coaching is offered in the form of several work-shops covering legal issues, market entry and successful pitching.
The first sessions of these workshops with the title “Taking your business to Europe” were aimed to provide the participants with indispensable expert know-how on.
- IP protection and transfer of IP rights;
- trademarks and license agreements;
- legal pitfalls, particularly availability of internet services provides for contains
The workshops were held by Prof. Rasmussen-Bonne and his colleagues from WEITNAUER, a Berlin based law firm focusing on finance, technology and transactions. He advises on corporate and commercial law issues, particularly distribution law issues, at both, the domestic and international level. He is specialist in Venture Capital contracts and has profound experience in advising Start-ups as well as investors.
He and his colleagues revealed the importance of a well-defined marketing strategy determining the core elements of individual IP protection strategy and encouraged the participants to think about patent protection whenever new software is created from early on. They also shared their expert know-how regarding the transfer of IP from company founders and employees to the company. During the session on trademark issues, the participants learned about the real value of their trademark and how they can avoid cost intensive mistakes made by prestigious companies which were cited as examples. Not enough, the participants were provided with examples for contract clauses which might be used in their day to do business. Last but not least, Prof. Rasmussen-Bonne revealed the pitfalls of German law which – if not taken into account from the start – might cause the sudden death of any promising start-up. Particular attention in this respect was given to the liability of internet service providers for foreign contents which is actually a hot topic, also for crowdfunding companies. “Setting up the legal framework correctly is as important as your business model” explained Oliver Beige the underlying idea.
Weitnauer is a preferred partner of Deutsche Telekom’s incubator, hub:raum in Berlin. The law firm offers special rates for Start-up companies.
