Founders Must Protect Their Ideas Earlier Than They Think — with Laurie Selkowitz

Leadership isn't just changing. It's evolving in ways we're only just beginning to imagine. And women, we're not playing this game anymore. We're the ones reshaping the entire field, building models, movements, and businesses that serve more than just a few. On the She Leads podcast, you'll hear real conversations with women who've broken through all kinds of barriers, revenue, identity, orders, and expectations.

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We are back and excited to welcome Laurie Selkowitz, a partner at the LA law firm Greenberg Glusker. Laurie's work within the technology and intellectual property group at Greenberg Glusker focuses on the intersection of technology, privacy, and the law. She counsels companies from emerging startups to Fortune 500 enterprises on compliance, the shifting landscape of intellectual property law, and other complex issues. Laurie advises on the development, implementation, and deployment of emerging technologies and platforms and is committed to advancing women's initiatives. Laurie is a strong advocate for female founders as we all are here at She Leads.

Alright, Laurie, welcome to the show. How are you?

I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

I am excited to be here and speak to you. And just before we sort of get into all of it, I'd love to understand, you know, how did you choose to practice law and how did you go about that on your journey to get where you are today?

Sure, sure. So I would say since I was actually in grade school, I wanted to practice law. Some would say I was maybe a fierce arguer. I would just say I was an advocate for people is how I would maybe frame it. And so I kind of knew going through high school, college, I had a business degree from the University of Illinois, but I knew I always law was kind of my in path.

And I And I was primarily focused on intellectual property. Interned at a law firm specializing in patents. And so I just thought that was kind of a fascinating space where you were really looking at people who came up with these kind of innovative ideas and how could they really commercialize that and make that their business going forward. Ways to protect it, how could they license it? Kind of outside what you normally saw as the law.

I'm sure most of us, you know, kind of grew up seeing law on TV as, you know, in the courtroom arguing or mergers and acquisitions, but I was more interested in kind of the intellectual property route and how I could be a small part of growing someone's business. And so that's kind of what I pursued. And then I was very fortunate very beginning when I started practicing to work on commercial transactions with a focus on IP and technology and privacy, and then have continued throughout until today.

Wow. I love that. And I love that you had business background as well because you could see the direct application of what it means to come up with something that is protectable and also able to be commercialized and create value for, you know, people in the world. I I wanna definitely get into this in a little while, but sort of in this age of AI, I'm sure that, you know, there's a lot that's being discussed around what is intellectual property and how do you actually protect it.

So I wanna talk about that more.

I know so much is being, you know, spoken about with that and people are afraid and at the same time the, you know, the the horse has left the gate on this. So I think it's gonna be very important, especially for the listeners to understand if they are, you know, building these businesses off of intellectual property, what are some of the things that they definitely need to watch out for in the future? But before we do that, I I read an article that you wrote in the Daily Journal. It was May 2025. And so you write about how significant progress has been made for women in the STEM fields, and I guess it's STEAM fields now too, right, with art Yep.

In in the mix. But they still face gender specific barriers including, you know, as we all know, lack of funding, resources, and support. And it's especially relevant in the realm of tech IP. So to sort of, you know, get us down this path, can you talk to us about how women innovators face higher patent rejection rates and what that, you know, means for women that are growing their businesses?

Sure. Sure. I think a lot of that, exactly what you said and was highlighted in the article, that women don't always have the access to the information and the education specifically on IP. You know, IP really rewards the first to file across the board. And so I think sometimes there's there's kind of the the viewpoint that, oh, maybe it's not it's not ready to protect yet, this idea.

I I need to give it a few more years and then I'll start, you know, really diving into the legal side and doing what I need to do to protect this idea. And the problem is with that, someone else then beats you to it on the patent front. So someone and else even if it's not exactly the same, the patentable aspect or component of your idea is what someone else feeds you to. So it just becomes And so then even if you're applying for a patent, maybe then even if you have an excellent idea, someone else then is then opposing your patent, the PTO, and now you're paying those legal fees. And so what I've often seen is that, you know, where men often are thinking I've seen this with clients of, okay, I have this good idea.

I'm to go right now. I'm going to start trying to see what I can do to protect this idea. I'm not going to wait. I think it can get better, but I think I have something right now that I want to protect. Women often are They keep wanting to fine tune it and make it better and better.

And I think as women, we're always looking know, women often get characterized in the legal world where I've seen as like risk averse, but I think we're just more risk aware and that we know We're kind of the parameters always one step ahead, which is excellent in negotiations, but I've seen it on the IP side, it disadvantage us in the sense that we're not then first filers. So we're just kind of waiting and that can be a huge loss for us in the Baton field. Across the board for trademarks, copyrights, and not having that kind of access to that information early on.

It just reminds me so much of the phenomenon that women don't apply to jobs unless they have whatever the statistic is, 90% of the skills and men will apply it if they have 25%. Mean, I'm being ridiculous. It it's it's sort of the same thing. Like, we we say to ourselves, like, oh, is this idea 100%, like, patentable and Right. Patentable.

And and then, you know, we say, well, no, it's not. But, you know, it sort of doesn't matter for a man. And, you know, all I mean, I'm care I'm overcharacterizing about it's like, you know, men think that their ideas are great and unique ideas, whether they are or they're not, you know, more power to them for sort of taking action. But and that's what we need to maybe learn from not to be like men. It's still great to be measured and and to understand what is and what isn't, you know, protectable.

But, you know, I think the message here is like, get in early.

A 100 yes. And I think, you know, that's where, you know, seeking outside counsel becomes really important to kind of say, you know, this is my this is my idea. You know, what are your thoughts on this? Because, you know, you have an excellent outside counsel. They'll be able to help you say, Okay, look, I think this is where you're going to have some issues here.

And that can be, like I said, on the patent front. I've had clients on for trademarks. They come up with a really great campaign and we say, Ugh, this is actually going to be it's gonna be an uphill battle. But if they come to a, if you come to someone early, we can start reframing that and coming up then with the idea that actually is protectable, as opposed to waiting five years later where now someone else has already beat you to it, and now you have an idea that really isn't of value anymore, or that the aspects that are, it's so small that you're not able to really commercialize it to a point that would be a value for you as a business. And so I think, yeah, acting early and then refining it as needed and looking at those risks, but instead of just sitting on it and kind of tinkering away trying to make it better and better.

I have so many questions. You

know,

I teach entrepreneurship NYU and at Rice University. And at NYU, you know, the the sort of legal trademark copyright discussion that we have doesn't come until much later in the semester after, you know, we've talked about what, you know, what is the problem that you're solving and customers and everything. And sometimes we skim right over that legal section because there's a lot to consider. And it's, you know, sort of at that point in the semester, everybody's ready to, you know, do their pitch decks. And we skim over the legal section and, you know, I often say this is complicated, but it's also something that we really need to think about early on in our business.

It's something that I advise people to make sure that you include money in your budget for for legal. It's the it's such a conundrum and I think it it really impacts women so much more so because we have less access to resources and and financing. And when you're when you have limited resources, you have to make really hard decisions about where to put those resources. And oftentimes legal, you know, you don't you don't bring an attorney on until you almost have to, and that's a really big mistake. So can you just talk a little bit about maybe how can women that are starting businesses or if they have any type of trademark or copyright or patentable innovation, when they should either bring on legal or how can they do it early on?

Just some advice in general.

Sure. Yep. I mean, I and I completely understand, you know, as outside counsel, it's you know, legal fees are expensive. And so I look at the bills that my clients have and it's just it is it's a cost that and I think for a lot of clients, exactly what you said, when they're starting out, there's a lot of them are they're paying with their own money. They're, you know, mortgaging a house.

They're doing what you know, loans from friends and family and all these sources. And the thought of then, Oh my gosh, I have to now start paying legal fees. It's just, you're trying to avoid that as much as possible. And so I feel like a lot of companies at the very beginning try to get away with as much as possible with these kind of informal arrangements or kind of handshake deals or one sheet term sheets that don't really have all the terms laid out and everything's not crystal clear and you haven't really thought through everything. But the problem is that as companies grow, you know, revenue, more employees, more sophisticated investors, that's when a lot of those decisions that you made at the very beginning can't really pop up.

And it's much harder to fix those issues after the fact. You know, you signed a contract with a vendor that was very one-sided and not favorable to you. You licensed product and it was very broad license rights where you really retained very little for yourself and you're giving or you didn't really do your due diligence for a vendor and maybe they're using data in a way that's possibly in violation of law. In so many things that after the fact, it's so hard to backtrack on that. You end up spending so much more in legal fees for one.

Sometimes vendors are just, they're not willing to really renegotiate with you. Or if they are, it's for a much deeper, you know, they'll do so for a fee, much more, they want bigger rights, they want exclusivity, certain things that you're just not able to give. Or if you are, it's a much bigger kind of weight on your company. And so I always try to encourage my clients to kind of bring me in early on to be part of the strategy. Let me, you know, the clients where I get them able to sit on their board meetings, and I don't even actually charge for sitting on the board meetings.

And the reason I don't is because it's I'm able to then see, okay, what are your priorities moving forward? You know, what are you, what do you think is really important? What are you moving away from? What worked in this last quarter, this last year? What didn't?

Like, where do we really need to be directing our focus? And then how can I support you on the legal side to really reach those goals? And if I'm not part of those discussions, if I don't see that, and if I'm just kind of at really playing defense later on, it's so much harder to kind of clean up those messes and frankly just more expensive. And so I try to kind of frame it more as legal isn't really a formality or an admin or just like that unnecessary kind of expense that you see on your balance sheet that you're thinking, Ugh, this is terrible. But really more of being a proactive leader.

And it's a quality of a leader is to have kind of that strong legal team, bringing them in when necessary, and kind of understanding that they don't need to be involved in every decision. But the more that you make sure they are understanding of what you're trying to accomplish in your company and your goals, that they'll be able to really support you and set you up for it to help reach them.

Yeah. I mean, it is so important. And when people are starting their businesses and, you know, you say bring bring legal counsel on as early as possible, is there some type of a like, even just a budget range? And I know it totally depends on what type of business people have and everything like that. But in order to just sort of think about, you know, bringing on somebody with a background like yours, you know, or or an attorney, law firm or anything like that.

What what should people think about when it comes to budget?

Yeah. I think I mean, I I always ask my clients, I full transparency with them of this is this this is my rate. This is the rates of the team. And this is you should look ask for for any outside counsel of okay. And ask them for a proposal.

What do you think this is going to cost? And and it's hard. I mean, I'll be honest, lawyers hate providing proposals because you don't have any idea what something's going to cost. But as the client, you need to have some idea of, okay, where is this going to set me? Is this reviewing this agreement or being, you know, preparing these corporate documents or helping me reviewing these trademarks, whatever it is.

I need an estimate, I need a budget, I need to be able to plan accordingly for this. And being able to have that working relation I mean, my clients now I've had for years and we have a very open dialogue about that in terms of some things they want to spend more on, what they don't want to spend as much on, and they know we have that relationship. And I think that's really helpful to be able to, they know they can come to me with things that are, that maybe that I understand the things that are very, very critical to them that need to have, are going to just be more expensive. And I can explain that to them. And then the things that maybe can be a much shorter review and that they don't need to have hours and hours of time on.

But I think having that The last thing you want is an unhappy client because the thing that you provided to them is not at all what the deliverable is a 20 page memo when all they wanted was a simple email response and a $20,000 legal bill when they thought it was going to be $2,500 So I think kind of really putting, making sure you're all on the same page as expectations and that they have the right expertise. I mean, I am not a lawyer who knows every This is my area of expertise. I'm fortunate to be at a firm that is a full service law firm, but there are certain things that we don't do that I always I'm very honest with clients about that as well. And I think making sure that you have an attorney who, if they don't have the expertise, that they can refer someone else or they can bring in other subject matter experts. Because no one's looking at everyone to know everything.

But I think especially when you're just starting out, you kind of, you want people who can really help you, you know, advise on certain issues. And so having someone who can bring in those resources is excellent.

Hey everyone. So for years, I've been working with dr. Kent and sending people in my network his way. He does so much impact work. What do I mean by that? Well, he helps people create books and podcasts and things like that.

He even helps with this podcast behind the scenes. Dr. Kent is my thought partner. Anyone listening knows that we all need to do what we can to get our thoughts, opinions, and voices out into the world and how important it is for women to invest in other women and for women to hire other women. I am all about that, and you all know that. But in this case, I think dr. Kent is an exception.

He's doing something really different via this new program that he's launched called the Genius Discovery Program. So he wants to work with people like me and like you who are impact driven. Dr. Kent has an intensive program that goes for a month. He also has a three month program where he figures out where you're headed with your brand, your business, your speaking, and your signature story as a thought leader.

I've known Dr. Kent for a long time. So believe me when I say that he has a ton of experience working with people that are looking to make an impact but might not know exactly how to approach them. So if you're interested in talking to him, can go directly to talktokent.com, or you can send me a DM on Instagram at She Leads Media, or just shoot me an email over at hello@SheLeadsMedia.com. When do you I guess, you know, not when should somebody come in, but but rather when do you see and because the audience is is women entrepreneurs, when how how do you see women maybe going wrong or not bringing in an attorney until it's it's too late.

Because what I'd like to do here is just make sure because everybody everybody that's listening to this podcast has some type of, you know, goal to get their to grow their business to, you know, free up resources. And and it's so important for women to have wealth so that we can do great things in in the world and and help humanity. So Yes. Anything that sort of prevents us from getting there is something that I really want women to understand. Everything that you were just talking about, you know, when to to bring somebody on and and that it might cost money right now, it prevents, you know, a terrible outcome that you don't want in the future that is going to maybe cost you more money, could even cost you your company.

So where are women going wrong, let's say? Where can they adjust? And what have you seen as in specific terms of women entrepreneurs?

Sure. Yeah. One thing that I've I'm starting to see a shift, is really positive, is I feel like kind of what we talked about earlier is kind of that label of women being risk averse as opposed to risk aware. And I saw that certain women were really, especially on the entrepreneur side, were really being pushed to not delay, let's say negotiating a contract. Don't delay the contract.

Act quickly. Don't be difficult as, you know, you might not understand all of these things, but that's okay. You should just sign them. This is a very reputable vendor. This is And not to create a lot of friction essentially in the negotiation process or pushback or looking at asking simple questions or negotiation, which is expected in part of the deal as being kind of unnecessary for the negotiation.

And I start, you know, when I started practicing, because I've always done commercial contracts with heavy emphasis in tech transactions, I often was the only female on a call. And I would see that for my male counterparts. And then when I more and more started representing female entrepreneurs, just kind of that feeling of, let's move this along. You've got your points. Where I didn't see the revert, you know, men could be feel free to ask as many questions as they wanted.

If they wanted to delay things, it was just seen as, oh, well, they're asking, of course they need to ask these, they need this information. And of course they need to negotiate these points. This is how the negotiation should go on their side, but it wasn't the same on women's side. So I've been really trying, you know, in terms for being an advocate for my client of female clients, of really pushing them to, we can take the time we need to negotiate this deal. Yes, we have a target deadline, but we should not, you should not feel rushed to sign just for the sake of making someone else feel like we're not delaying.

Like we have certain questions we should be able to ask them. They should be able to answer those questions to our satisfaction. We want to go through points more if we want to further negotiate, if we're not happy with certain terms. Like, we need to understand what we want the deal to look like on our end to make us most comfortable, to make sure that our areas of risks are addressed. And it shouldn't matter.

We don't have to succumb to what the other side is saying. And I noticed it's definitely a difference of approach, my female entrepreneur clients versus my male entrepreneur clients, of just that feeling of, I don't want to hold up the negotiation. And I'm seeing a shift that it's less of, it's starting to become less of that. But I think that what I've really kind of pushed to them is, it may feel uncomfortable now, but it is so much more important that you're aligned with the vendor and we're really creating a partnership now so that in five years from now, hopefully you still have this very successful relationship and partnership. But if we're just signing something just for the sake of not looking difficult, I don't if you can see me, difficult, carry that animosity all the way through.

And so I think, you know, really sticking up for your company and knowing what your rights are, what you're entitled to as your company, what you're proud of, and kind of having that confidence in the negotiations, regardless if you are the only female in the room and not letting anyone feel like they can kind of push you around and then maybe you don't know things. Because one, it's you do know, you know plenty, you know all about your company, you know what your company's about, you know what it stands for. They're wanting to do this deal with you because they see value in you. But also if you don't know, that's okay too. No one knows everything in these deals.

And that's why you ask questions and you find out more information. And that's all part of the kind of the art of negotiation. So I think kind of really prepping clients before calls and kind of what to expect not to feel like we just have to accept things just to get the deal done for the sake of getting the deal done.

I feel like this gaslighting is just happening. It happens in every single realm of just our existence, which is so unfortunate. And I was gonna ask, do you see that women are asking the same sort of questions? You know, women entrepreneurs are asking the same sort of questions as as male entrepreneurs that that they're sort of, you know, pretty similar. And it's just that the reaction that they're getting from the vendor, whoever they're negotiating with, that's where it diverges.

Similar, but I also think women ask the questions that are more really future looking. Like, I see this, but I'm trying to understand when you said X, Y, and Z, what's that gonna look like five years from now? Because I'm not seeing how those two go together. And I think that's when often there's frustration on the other side, but I've been trying to counsel clients. Frustration doesn't mean you're wrong.

Frustration often means you've asked a really good question and you've hit on something that's really important. And so don't step. The strongest thing you can do then is just then be silent and wait for that answer. Like there's no, they have to answer. It's an excellent question and you should ask it.

They're probably really frustrated that you raised it. You know, it's really an issue.

It's so funny because if you, anybody that has, you know, kids, you sort of, especially boys, you see when they're, you know, when they jump on their skateboard, you see the tumble happening, you know, ten minutes before you know exactly what's gonna happen and you go and you grab the band aids and the ice pack. We do, I think as a superpower have the ability to see 25 steps ahead. So what you're saying is so on point relevant, and I think it points to a a smart business person that anticipates where there are risks in the future and that is an amazing thing. I I think the world needs to catch up to some of the superpowers that women do have. And I love your message of like, hey, if you hit a point of frustration as often because those questions may not have been asked in the past.

It's it's preventing a negative outcome for the future. So, you know, I what you're talking about, I hear the same thing in the world of finance. You know, you don't understand this. Why are you asking about this? Let's just move forward.

And that's where you get into that's where anybody gets into to trouble with their businesses. So, you know, I just I think I think that maybe the, the world hopefully is waking up to the fact that, you know, women are really, really great business people. They're amazing negotiators. They're incredible, you know, relationship builders. We're not looking for transactional relationships to happen.

We do want to have partnerships into the future. And then one of the other things that I was going to say is that, you know, if if a vendor or anybody that you're negotiating with is pushing back at you and saying, come on, let's just hurry up. Maybe that's a signal that that's not the right partner.

Right. Yep. Exactly. Exactly. I think it helps, this is who you're getting into business with for these regardless of the scope of the matter, like, do I want you know, I'm trusting them with whatever I'm paying them, license, whatever it may be.

Yep. And do they value what I'm bringing to the table as well? And me, rightfully so, women entrepreneurs, I mean, that's their baby, this company that they have. And so you don't want to just give it away to anyone or let someone else have full rein and kind of mess up what you've really, blood, sweat, and tears put into this company. And so you really have to think, be very thoughtful about, especially in the beginning stages of the company, like what we were saying earlier, because those agreements often are longer agreements at times and they have very significant implications down the road.

And so you want to be very thoughtful about whom you're dealing with, what those terms are, and just, are they the right relationship? Are they the right partnership for me, you know, now and five years from now?

Yeah. Can you talk a bit about the some of the differences between copyright, trademark, registration, and then what are some of the categories that are are patentable so that and I hope I'm saying that right. I feel like it it's coming out wrong. Patentable. What are some of the the signs that, you know, somebody who's building a business or growing their business can look out for, like, like a trigger point, like, you know what?

We really need to get this, you know, trademarked or, hey, we've just hit upon something that we really should start the patent process. Can you give a little definition, little framework?

Yeah. Yeah. So on the trademark side, I often see it. I mean, obviously when you're looking at your And there's a number of considerations. I mean, I'm not a trademark specific lawyer, but in terms of like But when you're looking at the name of your company, there's this decision as to whether you should trademark that name in order.

Trademarking it gives you certain additional protections if someone tries to use that same name, registering it with the US Patent and Trademark Office. So I'll see it with a company if they came up with a unique name, working with a trademark attorney on that. I often see it when a company is looking at coming up with a new campaign, you know, or a new branding strategy, or even at their initial kind of launch one, or in the future when they're deciding maybe they want to refresh kind of the packaging or they're kind of in general, like I said, launching a new product or a new service, what it may be, a new website, anything like that, slogan tagline. My recommendation always is first to go to, without, you know, I hate always saying,

go to your lawyer, go

to your lawyer, but that's one where it's really helpful. It's a fairly quick process for a, it's like an hour, for a lawyer to run through. They can do a very quick search. Is that line, is that name already being used where you may have issues down the road? Because the worst thing you've seen, and I've had it happen to clients where they did not consult us beforehand.

They launched a campaign. They did the video for it. They did the commercial, shut everything for it. And then they get hit with a lawsuit saying that there were trademark and then they have to change everything. And now it then it looks like your company doesn't really know, you know, it's like, doesn't have an identity because you just came out with this whole splashy new campaign.

Now you're changing it all. And if it's a public lawsuit, then there's publicity around it as well. And so really going through and asking for I mean, I have clients often who, when they're still kind of maybe in the planning stages, they'll give us maybe 10 slogans, 10 taglines to just run through while they're still kind of in the figure and tweaking it, but they think this is the direction they want to go, and they'll ask us to review that. Same thing with like copyright. If they are wanting us to review maybe like a commercial to make A lot of times it comes up to make sure it's not infringing any third party's material.

So they'll have us maybe like a review and idea or any types of slides or their website and just make sure that more of a protection before they launch it to the public that do we think, how risky do we think it's going to be? And you know, and every client's different. I have some clients who they want to get as close to that line as possible. Oh, no. And then I have other clients who want to stay as far away.

Usually my female entrepreneur clients are like, we want to stay far away because we do not want to invest all this money into something and then be hit with a lawsuit, which I completely understand and I would be the same. But it's helpful to kind of know, okay, well, close are we? What are the risks if we proceed in that manner? And so that's usually kind of at the kind of being proactive at the beginning before you've even decided maybe which direction you want to go in just to have an attorney kind of And sometimes it's a gut check of, this seems like we may have an issue, but can you take a look and let us know your thoughts?

And and then what you come back with is they make the you come back with the recommendations. They make the business decisions.

They make the business. Yeah. Exactly. Like, we we usually will say, this is what we recommend because this is gonna be fairly risky for X, Y, and Z reasons. And then but right.

It's ultimately a business decision of, you know, how risky the client wants to be.

So I guess this is a great bridge to AI. Right? Sure. So my goodness, you know, AI comes up with, you know, a million different things, campaigns, slogans, all of that. Everybody is using AI more and more.

How can companies avoid you know, leverage AI for help and also avoid infringing upon things that have been copyrighted and trademarked and everything because AI is just iterating off of what it already knows. So chances are, you know, likely that it's not necessarily an original an original, you know, campaign or or a slogan or or anything. How how do you advise on that?

So I I think, you know, there are so many AI tools out there right now. So one thing I advise clients is before, you know, when they're kind of deciding which AI tools, and I have some clients that barely use anything and some that I've done 25 different AI contracts for them because they're using it across the board. But to really pay attention to the terms that you're subject to when you're using those AI tools, for a lot of clients, they're probably just subject to online tools unless they're negotiating a separate agreement with the AI provider. But ChatGPT or Gemini, any of those that you're Make sure you review the online terms, would say, or have someone to identify any risks on a regular basis. And I say that because you want to make sure a couple of things.

You always want to make sure whatever you input into the model, own. So your content, your materials, anything like that, you own all of that regardless that it's put into the model. You also want to check to see how can the model use your input. Can the model use it for training purposes? Can it share it with third parties?

Can it use it to improve its product? What parameters are on there? Ideally, it can only use it to provide services for you. That's best case But if not, you know, what does that look like? You know, are they going to be able to identify you as the, you know, you as the provider of that, you know, especially if images, if it, you know, a million different things that you want to be concerned about.

Then you look on the flip side of that is the output of the model. Who owns that? Our position is as the customer, the consumer of the model, we should always own the output and we should be free to do whatever we want with it. And then kind of goes to your question of if there's any issues with that output. So I always push for clients that the model stands behind the output so that the model provider would indemnify us if there's an infringement.

So if the output infringes a third party's intellectual property, if the output violates law, if the, any types of issues you have with the output that are not because of your input, that we would have some claim against the model provider. That's what it comes down to, is that, you know, exactly what you said. I mean, when we, if I'm using an AI tool to come up with a whole campaign for me, and I put in my parameters, I put in my content, and it generates the campaign, great. I launch it, and then I'm hit with three lawsuits. One for violating law, one because it's a privacy issue, and then one because I'm infringing on this other third party's IP because I completely relied on know, like to I have some recourse against the model provider.

Often you don't get those from the online tools. And so if you're not going to get them, then it just the due diligence really then falls on you that, okay, you're going to get the output and you need to really then have someone else be reviewing it to making sure that you're protected and you're not, you know, breaching any laws or violating any third party IP rights.

Yeah. There there are just so many considerations. Even yesterday, I was using Claude and and I don't even know why, but I asked a question. I I know why. I actually started taking an AI and design thinking course from IDEO.

It's my first day. And I have an idea around it's around just financing for for women. And so I wanted to to help my you know, help move my thinking forward. And then I thought to myself, I don't wanna necessarily put out to everybody what this thought is that I have because I feel like it's pretty, pretty good, pretty original.

Yeah.

And so I started digging into Claude, like, how can I make sure that this doesn't go anywhere except in my own iteration of of Claude? And so there are certain settings that you can turn on and off that say, you know, that you want it to learn or you can share it or whatever. I turned everything Yeah.

Yep. Yep. Exactly. Exactly. But having to right.

Exactly. You have to kind of read through the term, know what in terms of using third party to train, using your data to train, compare your views combined with others. There's so many things that And some of I feel like a lot of the more sophisticated and kind of generally known AI tools are more consumer friendly in the sense that kind of They may not provide all the legal protections, but at least you own your output. They provide the proper settings. But some of the kind of very innovative AI tools that a lot of companies are really wanting to use because they do all these really interesting things, those are where you just don't have a lot of protections.

Or even if you have them, the companies are so small that honestly, if they got hit with anything, they'd probably go under fairly quickly. So you just have to be prepared that you'll probably be the one left holding the bag if there is any type of litigation or something because of, you know, your out like output that was generated using their tool.

I think that the message for this whole entire conversation for every single person that's listening to this show is get an attorney and get an attorney early in in your business journey. And if you don't have one, you know, it's sort of like, what's the best time to plant a tree twenty years ago? What's the second best time now? I think the same applies to getting an attorney on on your side for your business. It it seems to be a critical success factor and also risk mitigator.

So, Laurie, if people want to get in touch with you, how can they do so?

Sure. Probably best ways through email, I would say. And so my email is l, last name Selkowitsz, lselkowitz@greenbergglusker.com. And you can look me up on the website as well. And I'm always I talk to people, meet with people all the time just for consultations, to talk through ideas.

I love helping connect people as well. I have a great network, a lot of, you know, great female entrepreneurs, friends, resources. So always happy to talk to people.

Well, I love that. And thank you so much for the work that you do. Thanks so much for the just the willingness to to talk to women entrepreneurs, because I do think that, you know, we we need to band together because we don't have those networks that I think are as long standing as, you know, maybe some of the our our male counterparts, and we have to be able to to do this for one another. So I really appreciate that. And I also appreciate all of the wisdom that you shared with us here today on the She Leads podcast.

Of course. Thank you so much for inviting me. It was such a pleasure to speak with you.

So much fun. Thank you, Laurie.

Thank you.

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