What this is. A public journal of the intellectual-property decisions a solo founder actually makes — trademarks, copyrights, trade-secret posture, licensing choices — with costs, timelines, and the reasoning behind each step. Written from inside the process, not after.
What this is not. Legal advice. I am a founder who has an LL.B., not a practicing attorney. Nothing here substitutes for a qualified IP attorney in your jurisdiction. Where I engaged counsel, I say so; where I didn't, I say that too.
Three reasons:
- Most solo-founder IP guidance is fragmented. Trademark blog posts live in one corner of the internet; copyright guidance in another; trade-secret posture almost nowhere. A working founder needs them together.
- The record is its own artifact. A public filing timeline with costs and rationale is more useful to another founder than a polished post-hoc guide.
- It's also a PM artifact. Running IP for a product portfolio is a program. It has a backlog, decisions, and a risk register. Treat it that way.
This playbook is journaled from Omkar's Holistic Services LLC — DBA Insights by Omkar, formed May 2023. The studio runs a consumer AI SaaS (Insights by Omkar) and a commercial astronomy API (Kriya, formerly Tuffys). Brand names and products referenced in this repo are in active commercial use.
- Studio · insightsbyomkar.com
- Portfolio strategy · tpm-portfolio/portfolio-strategy.md
- decisions/0001-llc-not-corporation.md — why the studio is an LLC, not a C-corp or S-corp, at the current stage
- decisions/0002-dba-vs-separate-llcs.md — one LLC with a DBA vs. multiple LLCs per brand
- decisions/0003-trade-secret-vs-patent.md — why the ephemeris engine is a trade secret and not a patent target
- decisions/0004-open-source-vs-proprietary-licensing.md — MIT for SDKs, proprietary for servers
- trademarks/README.md — the studio's trademark strategy overview
- trademarks/filing-log.md — live log of TM applications, statuses, costs, and class selections
- copyrights/README.md — strategy for code, docs, and creative content
- copyrights/registration-log.md — which works are registered, which aren't, why
- trade-secrets/README.md — what qualifies, how the studio protects it, what the audit log looks like
- templates/nda-mutual.md — starter mutual NDA (template only · attorney review required)
- templates/contractor-ip-assignment.md — work-for-hire + IP assignment template
- Each
decisions/doc follows the ADR format — context, options, decision, consequences — because IP decisions are architecture decisions. - Each
logdoc is append-only. Newer entries on top. Costs in USD unless otherwise noted. - Each
READMEin a subdirectory is a strategy summary — why first, what second.
Rough shape I converged on:
- One LLC with a DBA for the primary brand (lower cost, simpler taxes, scales to multi-brand via more DBAs if needed)
- Trademarks filed on product names in active commerce — the brand names that show up on the website and in marketplaces
- Copyright is automatic on code; register the specific works that would be worth suing over — almost none at solo stage; strategy is documented so the line is explicit
- Trade-secret posture is the heavy lifter — proprietary code, internal algorithms, pricing logic, and the like stay unpublished and are governed by an internal access discipline even in a team of one
- Open-source what you'd open-source anyway — SDKs, small utilities, tutorials — under MIT with a clean header
- NDAs reserved for the actual cases that need them — contractors, specific reviewers, not every conversation
The sequence matters: LLC → DBA → website live → use in commerce → then file TMs (not before). Filing before genuine use-in-commerce is a common solo-founder trap that burns the filing fee for no benefit.
Updated as entries land in the logs.
| Category | YTD spend (approx.) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| TM filings (USPTO) | — | See trademarks/filing-log.md |
| Copyright registrations (USCO) | — | See copyrights/registration-log.md |
| Attorney consultations | — | When engaged, logged per decision |
| Domain & brand-name defense | — | Includes defensive registrations |
| Total | — |
This is a personal journal; PRs are welcome if you find an error in a legal fact, but the opinions and decisions are mine. If you're another solo founder walking the same path, I'd rather you fork this and journal your own than edit mine.
MIT for the writing in this repo. The specific documents I reference (USPTO filings, USCO registrations) are public records; the studio's own unpublished work is not open-source and not licensed here.
Nothing in this repository is legal advice. Consult a qualified intellectual-property attorney in your jurisdiction for decisions that affect your business.