Legal Challenges to Start-Ups Explored at TiE Meet | India Journal

(L-R) Ganesh Kalyanaraman, Sunny Kalara, Kalpana Srinivasan, Salil Bali, Ronnie Roy & Arnold Peter.

BY A.MATTHEWS

CERRITOS, CA ? The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE)SoCal monthly meet focused on ?Legal Challenges That Effect Start-ups & Entreperneurs,?? at the Sheraton here on May 16. The meet was a joint effort? of TiE SoCal and the South Asian Bar Association (SABA) which put together a panel of guest attorneys to discuss different areas of law which are commonly overlooked by entrepreneurs.

Opening the event, TiE SoCal president Nixon James welcomed all attendees and introduced Moderator Sunny Kalara, a partner in Kalara Law Firm whose clients include many technology startups companies to Fortune 100 companies. The five attorneys on the panel were Ronnie Roy, Kalpana Srinivasan,Salil Bali, Arnold Peter and Ganesh Kalyanaraman. Each focused on their area of expertise. Roy dealt with Corporate Formation/M&A; Srinivasan employment law; Bali Intellectual Property; Peter Media and Entertainment and Kalyanaraman with the immigration aspect.

Roy, an associate in the Los Angeles office of Irell & Manella LLP, threw light on formation issues, corporate formalities and financing issues. He started by underscoring the importance of forming a company as it protects the entrepreneur and their assets while providing a sense of professionalism.? Staring off as an LLC is a wise choice as management and daily operations are easier in this setup. It is also easy to convert to a corporation from an LLC, but not the other way round. He recommended the Delaware LLC which is? easiest, rather than the California one. He also spoke on tax, liability and financing issues highlighting the importance of detailed documentation.

Srinivasan, a partner in Susman Godfrey?s Los Angeles office focused on the complexities and stringencies of employment law which every entrepreneur should be aware of. It is essential to have clear cut employment polices right from the start. As the company grows, employment practices become clearer and more transparent. The term employee has a very definite meaning under the law and could denote a full time employee or an independent contractor. They way an employer should deal with these categories is very different. For employees meals, breaks, overtime compensation and reimbursements come into play. As the company grows there may be a need for a separate HR department to handle these issues.

Bali, an IP Litigator at Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth focused on trademarks, patents, copyrights and trade secrets. He highlighted the importance of doing research and due diligence at the start which would help prevent huge expenses down the road pointing out that most companies do not have tangible assets but IP assets. Patents protect ideas, trademarks protect brands while copyrights protect expression of a particular idea. It is important to determine the IP a company has and then ways to protect it. Biggest stumbling block entrepreneurs tend to overlook is trademarks. While choosing a name for the trademark do a thorough search and then go in either for a fanciful, arbitrary or descriptive name. Filing for a patent is very crucial, inventors has one year from the day they make a public disclosure to file. A provisional application gives them an extra year. If the filing is not done, the invention is up for grabs.

Peter, Managing Partner and Founder of Peter Law Group based out of Beverly Hills at the outset made it clear that entertainment law was not a distinct body of law per se but meant that the attorney represented a company in the entertainment business. Entertainment law would most likely be related to IP law. Biggest roadblock is lack of documentation involving no clearcut document on relationship between the parties, split in profit/revenue, ownership of IP. Next is rights acquisition. For example, while making a book into a movie, before you launch off , the producer has to acquire rights which are more aptly a ?bundle of rights,? done by a chain of title.

This is followed by the development phase where entertainment content is created and the distribution phase which is the most interesting.

Kalyanaraman, an attorney at The Chugh Firm?s Los Angeles office focused on the immigration procedures to be followed by any entrepreneur who wishes to bring talent to the US and have talent from the US go around the world. Of uttermost importance is to be compliant with immigration law. Each employer should fill an I-9 for each employee and know where they are kept. Be organized. He spoke on the different visas available in getting talent from abroad to the US like the L1 and H1 B and the different categories under which green cards can be filed including the EB5 designed for those who invest one million dollars in a new enterprise that employs ten U.S. workers or $500,000, if the investment is in certain rural areas or an area of unemployment of at least 150 percent of the national average. Investor visas for those investing in rural or high unemployment areas are limited to a maximum of 3,000 every year.

A Q & A session followed in which the attendees? queries were answered by the panelist.

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