Author Archives: Sharda Balaji

101 on Founders Agreement [Legal Resources]

By Sharda Balaji No Comments

Most founders begin their startup with their friends, colleagues or someone who they have known in the past. The earlier social relationship is now an economic relationship and it is essential to have a strong contractual agreement. There are some … Read More »

Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) in India – All you need to know about

By Sharda Balaji 74 Comments

LLP, a legal form available world-wide is now introduced in India and is governed by the Limited Liability Partnership Act 2008, with effect from April 1, 2009. link (pdf) . LLP combines the advantages of ease of running a Partnership … Read More »

 , , ,

How to Protect your Trade Secrets

By Sharda Balaji 5 Comments

You must have read the news last month about an ex-Intel employee being charged with theft of trade secrets. Do you think it was a willful act or negligence or ignorance? It is imperative for organizations to educate employees on … Read More »

 

Demystifying Dual licensing with GPL

By Sharda Balaji 1 Comment

An interesting question came our way and we thought of sharing this with the larger group.  As a start-up most of them are on the look for free/open source alternatives before buying or building things. In the last few years, … Read More »

 ,

Stock Compensation in Early Stage Start-ups – How to go about it?

By Sharda Balaji 2 Comments

We are pretty familiar with Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) and Employee Stock Purchase Scheme (ESPS) as an employee benefit plan and employee retention tool. They are attractive in listed companies, primarily because of easy trade-ability and established market price. … Read More »

 

Starting up? Legal Primer – Basic Registrations that you should know

By Sharda Balaji 19 Comments

You have just started on your own and trying to understand different registrations required for conducting your business. Statutory or regulatory registrations are largely related to the kind of business or operations. You may need registration under the software technology … Read More »

 

Sole Proprietary or Partnership? How to choose your company’s legal avatar?

By Sharda Balaji 149 Comments

[Guest post by Sharda Balaji, Legal Counselor and Corporate Secretary; and is co-founder of Novojuris Services India Pvt. Ltd. ] You are planning to start on your own. How do you choose the legal form you need to operate as? … Read More »