How can I protect the intellectual property created by employees and independent contractors?

Protecting your intellectual property is absolutely paramount. One of the things that you have to do is make sure that you have the right agreements in place with your team members, your employees, your independent contractors. Things like invention assignment agreements, pending contractor agreements that sort of capture the intellectual property and ideas that are created, non-disclosure agreements, non-solicitation agreements and, where applicable and enforceable, non-compete agreements.