How to Start Up a Software and Technology Company in Texas, the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston

I have represented Technology Companies for decades and have developed essential legal recommendations, tips, and advice to startups in Texas, emphasizing the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

New Texas startups and Texas businesses in what has been called the Texaplex are sprouting up in every major Texas city particularly with new startups and tech startups in Austin, Dallas, and Houston.  Whether the Texas startups are launching new software, new computer code, new apps, and applications, or even hardware, they all need the same legal advice for Texas startups.  This is particularly critical if your Texas technology company is attempting to protect source code or raise venture capital in the Texaplex, Austin, Houston, and Dallas.  Startups definitely need legal advice if they are seeking to protect their trade secrets under Texas law for the recently enacted Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (TUTSA) which safeguards confidentiality.  NDA’s or Non-Disclosure Agreements in Texas are not enough.  Here are my top legal tips and legal recommendations to Texas startups and new businesses starting up in Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

• Protect your IP and get Legal Advice to protect your Intellectual Property and software in Texas, the Texaplex, Austin, Houston, and Dallas.

This is critical advice to technology startups in Texas and particularly startups in the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston where the business environment is more competitive.  Get legal advice on protecting your IP and intellectual property or you will lose it.  As a Texas IP and technology lawyer and founder of the Moster Law Firm and its Turing Technology Group ™, I see clients lose their IP over and over again by making foolish mistakes and lacking crucial legal advice.

The computer code, source code, and computer software for your startup or Texas startup in Austin, Dallas, and Houston must be protected even before the first beta or prototype of the new technology or new software is launched.  If your computer code, source code, or software for your startup in Austin, Houston, and Dallas is unprotected it will be stolen.  Count on it.

So how do you get legal protection for your software, source code, and computer code?  The best angle is to seek the legal services of a copyright and IP attorney like the Moster Law Firm and its Turing Technology Group ™ to protect your computer code, source code, and software before you even launch your IP and Technology startup and company whether it is an LLC (Limited Liability Company), Corporation (S corporation or C corporation), Limited Partnership, or any other entity in Texas, the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

Computer Code, source code, and software can be legally protected in Texas by filing a copyright registration with the United States Copyright Office in Washington.  The IP or Technology lawyer handling this will need to look at your computer code, source code, and software and determine what specimens or actual pages of computer code are necessary to be electronically filed with the Copyright Office to protect your computer code, source code, and software. This is determined by the length of the code and measured by the actual pages of copy on Windows.

But how do you protect a competitor from stealing your computer code, source code, and software in Texas, Austin, Houston, and Dallas by just reading the code off the Copyright site?  This is a critical question particularly if your Texas software, computer code, or source code is being offered online, through the internet, and e-commerce. IP protection for software, source code, and computer code is now easy given that the Copyright Office has filing procedures to protect your trade secrets in Texas, Austin, Dallas, and Houston by allowing for the filing of redacted or edited computer code and source code. What this means is that you can substantially edit the pages of computer code and source code filed with the U.S. Copyright Office so that it cannot be reverse-engineered and copied.  This is easy for most clients to accomplish as they understand what code is important and can readily change it.

But does the filing of a copyright for software and computer code and source code in Texas, the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston really offer any protection?  Yes!  Filing a copyright in Texas for technology, computer code, and software offers enormous legal protection.  If a competitor steals your Texas software, source code, or computer code, your IP Lawyer in Austin, Dallas, and Houston will send out a cease & desist letter requiring that the party who stole your software, source code, or computer code to stop their infringement of your Texas IP and intellectual property.  If they don’t stop their acts of technology and IP Infringement in Texas, the next legal step is for your lawyer to file an infringement lawsuit in Federal Court and make them stop infringing on your computer code, source code, and software.  IP attorneys in Texas, Austin, Dallas, and Houston have an arsenal of legal weapons which can be fired at IP offenders including getting an injunction to immediately stop the infringement of your Texas IP and intellectual property.  What this means is that the court will issue an Order forcing the infringer in Texas, the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston to stop infringing or face jail time if held in contempt.  As much as infringers like to infringe on IP and intellectual property in Texas, they do not relish taking their toothbrush to a federal jail cell.

Other remedies which can be meted out by a Federal Texas Court against Texas infringers of IP and intellectual property include forcing them to pay huge legal damages based on lost profits and an accounting of all revenue received by the infringing companies based on their illegal use of stolen Texas IP.  The court can also force them to remove all media including websites, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter which advertises their Texas IP, intellectual property, software, and computer code in all markets including Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

• Protect your IP and Intellectual Property by getting a Patent in Texas, the Texaplex, Austin, Houston, and Dallas.

It is not always clear whether your Texas IP and intellectual property should be patented in addition to copyrighted.  An experienced law firm that practices in the area of Patents like the Moster Law Firm and its Turing Technology Group ™ need to examine your computer code, source code, and software to make a recommendation as to whether the IP should be patented either through a provisional patent (also known as a patent-pending) or utility patent.  This is a technical inquiry and requires your experienced IP attorney to determine whether the benefits of getting a patent for your software, source code, and computer code in Texas, the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston are recommended over the protection available by filing a copyright to protect your Texas technology and innovations.  The legal cases and precedent in the area of patent law will guide your patent lawyer in making a recommendation whether the additional IP protection is warranted.  At the very least, you need to ask this critical legal question about protecting your IP and intellectual property in Texas, the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

• Do I need to get a Trademark to Protect my IP and Intellectual Property in Texas, the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston?

The answer is almost always – yes.  Aside from creating the actual computer code, the branding of the IP software and IP product is essential to business success.  You are more likely to increase revenue based on the success of your branding and advertising than the actual utility and functionality of your Texas IP and intellectual property.

So how do you file a trademark to protect your Texas IP and intellectual property in the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston?  A Texas trademark attorney and law firm like the Moster Law Firm and its Turing Technology Group ™ can help by determining whether your product name is protectable and if a trademark to protect your Texas IP can even be filed with the United States Patent Trademark Office also known as the USPTO.  Critically, you want to make sure that you are not infringing on someone else’s registered trademark and brand.  A mistake at this level could shut you down and cost thousands of dollars in legal defense costs.

Trademarking your Texas IP and intellectual property is critical to preventing expensive litigation and the total disruption of your Texas IP and Intellectual Property business.  A trademark law firm like the Moster Law Firm and its Turing Technology Group ™ can suggest whether getting a trademark is recommended and which trademarks to obtain whether word marks, logo or composite marks, and other protections offered by the USPTO, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, to protect your Texas IP and intellectual property in the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

Conclusion:

Get legal IP advice to protect your startup technology business in Texas, the Texaplex, Austin, Dallas, and Houston.  The very survival of your Texas technology and software startup may depend on that.

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