Stacey Friends was quoted in the special article entitled Attorneys share entrepreneur's IP mistakes. The article addresses what happens when entrepreneurs don't turn to professional help with intellectual property law. It appeared in the Inside IP Law section on April 17, 2009:

Stacey Friends
Shareholder, Ruberto,
Israel & Weiner PC
Boston

In the excitement of building a company, entrepreneurs often fail to take the steps to ensure that all intellectual property being contributed by independent contractors, co-founders and employees ends up in the name of the company. Obviously it is easier to avoid IP ownership mistakes or misunderstandings by hiring an attorney, so perhaps this is not a fair answer, but there are simple things entrepreneurs can do on their own. First, entrepreneurs should make sure that they have a written agreement with all contractors that includes a "work for hire" clause. This dictates that copyrightable work done by the contractor will belong to the company. Contractor agreements should include an assignment of IP clause also as a back-up, since the work for hire doctrine only applies to certain types of works.

Entrepreneurs should also have employment agreements between all employees (this includes the founders) and the company they create which include work for hire and assignment of IP clauses as well as noncompete and confidentiality provisions.