About Snapchat

The Snapchat Founders and Lightspeed Investor Dispute

The Snapchat founders and one of their biggest investors, Lightspeed, got into a fight last week over their choice to go public and launch the Initial Public Offer (IPO). In 2012, Mr. James Liew, a venture capitalist for Lightspeed, inserted several clauses into their financial agreement that prompted the company’s founders, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, to ask for a commanding majority of the voting power over their enterprise. Mr. Liew had special rights on who else may participate in the business as the first significant investor, and all subsequent investments had to be made with Lightspeed as the top priority. The above led to the two founders feeling shortchanged and thus they worked round to change the deal with Mr. Liew. Lightspeed agreed to some changed terms, and the two founders have retained majority shareholding thus giving them the power to decide even on the rights of the other shareholders (Benner).

Intellectual Property and its Importance

The above describes a branch of business law referred to as intellectual property. Possessing the appropriate intellectual property helps an individual in preventing and stopping people from stealing or copying the following: own inventions, names of brands or products, items that are made, written or produced by the intellectual owner. The design of the goods is also protected. Examples of intellectual property are patents, designs, copyrights, and trademarks. Protection of the above intellectual property can be applied for or automatically granted. A person is considered to own intellectual property if they: created an item that meets the requirements for patent, copyright or a design; purchased the intellectual property rights of the previous owner or the creator; and lastly, if they are in possession of a brand that can be classified as a trademark (Candelin-Palmqvist, Sandberg and Myll, 505).

Works Cited

Benner, Katie. “Snapchat Founders’ Grip Tightened After a Spat With an Early Investor.” 27 February 2017. The New York Times. Web. 03 March 2017. .

Candelin-Palmqvist, Hanni, Birgitta Sandberg and Ulla-Maija Myll. “Intellectual Property Rights in Innovation Management Research: A Review.” Technovation 32.9-10 (2012): 502-512.