Ask HN: Startup built on idea-kernel developed at former employer

3 pointscuca_de_chumbo2 comments

I worked starting 2000 January at a startup in the San Jose area and stayed with the company for 1.5 years approx (i.e., through the dot-com bust/mini-recovery/bust). While I was there we came up with some interesting ideas (I came up with and refined a large portion of these ideas) and filed for 10 patents in 2001. I did a large portion of the patent disclosure work.

Long-story short (I will post further about the situation in further comment below) ...

    * patents filed were never fully pursued by acquiring
      company, and all lapsed in 2007 or before
    * patent appications have huge value and adequately
      describe a beautiful monetizable system -- and due
      to lapsed patents, while one could not prevent others
      from implementing the same, others cannot successfully
      sue a new startup for developing these ideas since
      there is fully documented prior art

More details in a further comment ...

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* an idea-kernel that would be the excellent basis for a new startup * good documented prior-art (in the form of the lapsed patent applications) that probably are decent enough to defend against patent trolls * I'm at the point in my professional career where I want to pursue these ideas * >>> the fact that if I were any other person, with no prior association with the former startup or acquiring large company, coming across these lapsed patents, I could implement them unencumbered and have good protection (though I could not prevent others from implementing the same) * >>> since I worked on the original IP ... I might have some obligation to the "acquiring large company", though they likely would care only if I were to (a) be extremely successful; or (b) use the lapsed patent applications as defense in a patent lawsuit

* build a prototype * talk to potential investors and potential customers * engage a patent lawyer to discuss possible licensing arrangements (or outright permission) to work on the I.P. with "large acquiring co" * hope for the best