This program will address important issues you need to know prior to engaging a product development firm. These include the budgeting process and phases of development, assessing the expertise of the team, ownership of intellectual property and improvements and how to avoid disputes in assigning intellectual property, conflicts, trade secret solutions provided by the product development firm, employee and independent contractor agreements.  The program will also cover the importance of nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements and how to navigate the process prior to revealing sensitive information and understanding ownership of such information.  Discussion of engagement contracts with a product development and manufacturing firms and issues to consider in that realm will be considered as well.

Moderator:

Alan D. Lucas, Senior Partner, CMC Consulting Boston, Inc.

Panelists:

John F. Cohan, Partner, Ruberto, Israel & Weiner, P.C.
Roy J. Coleman, Partner, Iandiorio Teska & Coleman, LLP
Jarman Joerres, Co-Founder, Principal, MedAcuity, LLC
Jon McIntyre, VP of Product Development and Co-Founder, Bridgemedica, LLC

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the program, you will understand:

• Due diligence needed prior to hiring a product development firm
• Contractual issues to consider when engaging a product development firm
• Ownership of intellectual property; computer code and improvements to your technology
• Automatic Assignments and how to avoid disputes in assigning intellectual property
• How to manage trade secrets
• Design meetings and Insuring intellectual property rights
• Conflict resolution of intellectual property rights
• Managing independent contractor agreements
• Nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements