L
lynxpen
Guest
I am about to register a company for a business idea I had that is almost ready to go into operation. I cut someone in on this business idea for approximately 10% as they were trying to rip me off and I figured it was a good idea to keep 'your friends close and your enemies closer'.
This person had actually sparked my idea when he said something like 'I might make an XYZ website' where XYZ would be something like a 'motoring website', 'poker website', 'travel website'. It was a completely general statement off the top of his head, with no real intent to actually do it, and with zero originality - there are tons of motoring, poker and travel websites out there. The moment he said it, something clicked for me and I said 'actually do you know what would make a great business - xxxxxxxx'. Where xxxxxxxx is a completely original specific concept related to XYZ that has not been done on the internet. I have since gone ahead and developed this idea, putting in countless hours work on it and it is almost ready to launch.
After discovering he was in the process of ripping me off and passing my idea off as his own I decided my only option was offer him 10%. There are emails between us where I offer him the 10% and he accepts. I have done 100% of the work on this business and I came up with 100% of the ideas. He sparked off my original idea with his statement of 'I might make an XYZ website'.
Now that it is nearly ready to launch and I have to register a company I am unhappy having to hand over 10% of the business to someone who has done zero work, didn't come up with the original idea, and is only getting 10% because he tried to rip me off.
So my questions are -
1. His off the cuff statement of 'I might make an XYZ website' - does that entitle him to a % of my highly specific completely original idea that was sparked by that statement.
2. Are the emails between us legally binding?
3. What options do I have in this situation? I would appreciate any advice you can give me.
This person had actually sparked my idea when he said something like 'I might make an XYZ website' where XYZ would be something like a 'motoring website', 'poker website', 'travel website'. It was a completely general statement off the top of his head, with no real intent to actually do it, and with zero originality - there are tons of motoring, poker and travel websites out there. The moment he said it, something clicked for me and I said 'actually do you know what would make a great business - xxxxxxxx'. Where xxxxxxxx is a completely original specific concept related to XYZ that has not been done on the internet. I have since gone ahead and developed this idea, putting in countless hours work on it and it is almost ready to launch.
After discovering he was in the process of ripping me off and passing my idea off as his own I decided my only option was offer him 10%. There are emails between us where I offer him the 10% and he accepts. I have done 100% of the work on this business and I came up with 100% of the ideas. He sparked off my original idea with his statement of 'I might make an XYZ website'.
Now that it is nearly ready to launch and I have to register a company I am unhappy having to hand over 10% of the business to someone who has done zero work, didn't come up with the original idea, and is only getting 10% because he tried to rip me off.
So my questions are -
1. His off the cuff statement of 'I might make an XYZ website' - does that entitle him to a % of my highly specific completely original idea that was sparked by that statement.
2. Are the emails between us legally binding?
3. What options do I have in this situation? I would appreciate any advice you can give me.