Protect Your IP Before You Fundraise

Before you pitch investors, make sure the company, not individual founders or contractors, owns its code, name and inventions, and that you have filed or deliberately chosen not to file for the protection that matters most.

What investors look for

• Signed assignments from founders, employees and contractors giving the company ownership of their work.
• A filed provisional or full patent application for core inventions, where patents make sense.
• A cleared, ideally registered, company name and logo.
• Clear rules on open-source code and third-party components.
• Confidentiality agreements for anyone who saw sensitive material.

Watch public disclosure

Showing your invention publicly, in a launch, paper or demo, can limit patent rights. The United States offers a limited grace period for your own disclosures, but many other countries do not, so file first or get advice before you go public.

A simple IP checklist

1. List what you have: code, brand, inventions, data.
2. Decide for each whether to patent, trademark, copyright or keep it secret.
3. Get ownership agreements signed.
4. File where it counts, and keep dated records.

Questions

Do investors require a patent?

Not always. They want to see that you own what makes the company valuable and that it is defensible, which can include trade secrets and brand rights as well as patents.

Keep reading

• Provisional Patent Applications for Startups
• Patent Attorney or Patent Agent for a Startup?

Sources

• USPTO: Trademark, patent, or copyright?
• USPTO: Types of patent applications

General information, not legal or financial advice. Reviewed 10 November 2026.