Facebook/ConnectU

The New York Times had a great article today about the ongoing ConnectU/Facebook kerfuffle (pdf). There are many lessons here for those starting up a technology company.

They quote R. Scott Feldmann, an intellectual property lawyer and a partner at Crowell & Moring.

Ideas, Mr. Feldmann explained, are protected either by trade-secret contracts or by patents and copyrights. “Trade secrets may be maintained indefinitely,” he said, but “it does not appear that ConnectU had Zuckerberg sign a nondisclosure agreement, and disclosing a trade secret to someone without doing so would ordinarily result in loss of any trade secret status.”

At the same time, Mr. Feldmann said, “copyright will not protect ideas themselves, only their expression” — in a Web site’s underlying source code, for instance. But if Mr. Zuckerberg was an unpaid, casual worker at ConnectU, and not an employee, then “he owns the code,” Mr. Feldmann said. Thus, even if the ConnectU plaintiffs can prove that the codes of two social networking sites were similar (an argument that Facebook seems confident it can refute), the Winklevosses might have no claims on Mr. Zuckerberg.

“On the surface, it appears ConnectU will have some challenges,” Mr. Feldmann said.

Given all the sturm und drang this case has kicked up on the blogosphere (now also in the offline press), the thing that keeps running through my head is the old Peggy Lee song...

The Evolution of Ideas

"If I have seen further it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants."

-Isaac Newton, February 5, 1675

Jason Calacanis has an interesting post about ideas and their evolution.

It brings up the larger issues of the defensibility of ideas, IP protection and the evolutionary nature of technology.

Every VC who asks about software patents should read this.

The Continuing "Ideas" Meme

Brian Oberkirch has a great post.

Web app ideas are the new screenplays: everyone’s got one and wants to talk to you about it. There is a huge run on Web & social media expertise right now, and, like everyone else, I’m getting deluged with requests. And while I don’t mind signing an NDA (I have a standard confidentiality line in my work agreements), it doesn’t send the right signal to me when you think your idea has to be cloaked with an NDA before we talk about it.

Because your idea doesn’t matter.

We all have ideas. If you came over tonight and we threw something on the smoker and sat up all night and drank and chewed the fat, we’d end up with a half-dozen good Web-based business ideas by daylight. Thinking it up is easy. (Buy me a beer in SF this week and I’ll give you a free business idea. They are like candy.)

HT to Ev

The Value of Startup Ideas

Startup ideas are incredibly overvalued by some people.

The idea is worth nothing. The execution is worth everything.

David Cohen at Colorado Startups had a great blog post on the subject yesterday.

Here's the great quote:

One of the students approached me after the class in order to tell me that he had a killer idea for a web startup, but he didn’t feel he had the ability to create it since he was not a programmer. He asked me if he felt this would limit his chance of success in general, or for getting into TechStars. Of course I told him it would not limit, but rather eliminate him from consideration for TechStars. I advised him to find co-founders who are builders and who compliment his own strengths, and then apply. It never ceases to amaze me how people overvalue ideas.

Also on point is Paul Graham

Actually, startup ideas are not million dollar ideas, and here's an experiment you can try to prove it: just try to sell one. Nothing evolves faster than markets. The fact that there's no market for startup ideas suggests there's no demand. Which means, in the narrow sense of the word, that startup ideas are worthless.

The idea for Foneshow is not unique and has little or no value. Lots of people are working on podcasting over the phone. Where Foneshow has created its value in the execution.