About IPGuard

Almost 15 years ago, I had an idea that led me to start my first company. This idea was precious to me.

I thought it was so good it was stoleable. This feeling is very common among young entrepreneurs. But it was more than plain paranoia. At that time I was working in an patent-minded company, so I was aware of intellectual property, was it was, its value and how to protect it.

I wrote down what my idea was about in a seven pages document, printed it and sealed it in a Soleau enveloppe.

What is a Soleau enveloppe? This tool is issue by the INPI, the French intellectual property agency. This is a two-compartment enveloppe, where you put two copies of the same document. You send the enveloppe to the INPI, which keeps one of the compartement for 5 years and returns the other to you. The Soleau enveloppe acts as a timestamp: it proves you were in pocession of the enclosed document at the date of the deposit.

This single deposit cost me 15€. I had to order the enveloppe to the INPI. Fill it. Post it. That was both expensive and time consumming.

What about all the improvements I made after the deposit? The INPI never heard about them. Hey, I was not going to pay 15€ every week of so.

Nowadays, as a developer, most of my intelletual property is in Git repositories. In the code of course, by also in READMEs, mind maps, etc. How frequent is this IP created? Several times a day. As an entrepreneur, I want my IP protected at low cost, if not free. I want it protected as soon as it goes out of my head through my fingers and keyboard. And I want it to be protected seamlessly.

This is what IPGuard is about. Protect your code and ideas, automatically, continously, for free.