Hello good people of Radar!
Odun here! With me are Bola and Funkola and we’re the founders of DIYLaw.ng.
Our goal is to make life easier for entrepreneurs by making legal more accessible using technology. We were also shortlisted for the SME Empowerment Innovating Justice Challenge HiiL - User Friendly Justice.
We’re excited to be here, so ask us anything! :).
Oh, and that’s a picture of my desk where I will be answering your questions from.
Talk to you soon!!
Thread opens at 4pm, ready your questions!
You can start dropping your questions.
OK. This has bugged me for ages. A company asked me to draw up concepts and designs for some promotional materials. I did. I was a freelancer. Later they said the ideas don’t fly and won’t be using them. So I didn’t get paid. Fine, next thing I knew about 2-3 months later, I saw one of my concept/design on a BRT ad. For the same company. It was adjusted enough that they argued it wasn’t mine.
My question-
Hey, Bola, Funkola, Odun, congratulations on the HiiL Justice challenge shortlist. Few questions;
What is DIYLaw?
Why did you start DIYLaw? Is there a personal story here?
Which is better for a Nigerian startup;registering a business as a corporation or registering a business name?
How does one react when another website copies one’s online content verbatim?
Hello Everyone!
Thank you for having us.
Hi,
I have two questions concerning online content
Hey IBK,
Taking off my DIYlaw.ng cap and putting on my TLP cap 
I would suggest that you sign a Freelancer Agreement next
time (if you didn’t do it this time) with a water tight Intellectual Property
clause
The best time to initiate legal action is the moment you
recognise that your right has been infringed on and efforts to settle things
amicably are not working. Unfortunately, legal action is more often than not “stressful”
in these parts, so I’ll advise that you try Alternative Dispute Resolution such
as mediation, arbitration, negotiation etc
Hi guys. Much respect. I’ve seen a ton of startups that are essentially manual logistics businesses with a website. Is DIYLaw any different? Is there actual technology powering the core of the value proposition, or is it forms and email? Because if that’s the case, then my dad’s sales business is a technology business too 
Hello Lanreode,
That’s deep o.
I think the first thing to do is to get a lawyer to write a Cease
& Desist letter to the company / promoters of the website, asking
them to pretty much “cease and desist” using your content. Please be
sure to also take screenshots of the infringing website as you may need
it if the matter ends up in court.
Bola here and thanks for having us here…
As far as web content goes, there are tools to actually use to prevent people from copying content from your website. That prevents the physical aspect. There is also a legal aspect as well and that will depend on the laws around this in Nigeria.
Hiya Gbenga!
DIYLaw as a business is a technology startup. We are a technology company seeking to make legal processes easier for users! So what is DIYlaw.ng? One-stop hub for all things legal. A platform that allows users initiate certain legal functions themselves such as business registrations, IP registrations, and business & personal documents. We plan to also be a platform for legal resource and a forum to interact/engage lawyers.
Personal story “ish”. Funkola and I as business owners and business service providers witness daily first-hand the pains and frustrations associated with registrations so we decided to do something about it and make life easier for others. Bola took pity on us and decided to build the technology backbone required to make the magic happen
Depends. If a solo founder in early stage, in a non-risky business and not fundraising, maybe a business name might work. If you don’t fall into any of the above, please consider incorporating a company
I do like your sense of humor. I do like a common tagline around here,
It goes… It’s so easy, even a caveman can do it. I stole that from a commercial. Going back to your question, DIYLaw is built on a robust php framework called codeIgniter and the database used is mySQL .
CodeIgniter is easy to use and allows us streamline the code underlying your web pages easily. It is built on a linear and easy-to-use folder structure so the code is clean. I could go on and on about the advantages but the bottomline is it makes the application more robust, efficient and secure. The database allows a robust data storage so to answer your question, it is not forms to email…
DIYLaw also takes security and privacy as priority so all processes are secure and payment information goes through a secure payment gateway. Hope this helps and answers your question:)
The copyright laws concerning violations are the same for the web and for everything else (e.g. literary, musical, cinematograph or artistic works as well as photographs). Where a person uses another person’s copyright without permission, it amounts to a violation, on or off the web.
A person can sue for defamation of character (where the story is an outright lie, because truth is a defence to defamation). Ofcourse, things can be settled amicably i.e asking for an apology to be published and the likes.
Oh my bad @gbenga , forgot to thank you for the good wishes. Hope you have voted for us so you can congratulate us again when we win 
Hi ladies,
To say i’m impressed about what you do will be a blatant understatement. Good job once again. However, i’d like to know how you feel about NDAs for startups? Are they really necessary from a legal point of view?
Massive thumbs up!
Hello @OlumuyiwaCoker
Thank you for the kind words.
Like Funkola, I’ll take off my DIYlaw cap and put on my TLP Cap.
Your question is pretty broad as an NDA is used for various reasons but I am guessing you are referring to using an NDA when speaking with investors… Well it is good to have one but I cannot assure you it will be signed by investors, especially institutional investors and angel investors who invest frequently. They see several deals, many of which are similar to one another so it is not likely they will be willing to sign an NDA during initial talks to avoid a risk of being sued for investing in a deal similar to one they had seen previously but passed on.
However, when talks progress and it is likely that a deal may happen, by all means include confidential obligations, this may be in form of a stand alone NDA or confidential obligations included on a term sheet.
Hello Bola Funkola and Odun!
Well done with TLP first as well as DIYlaw. Congratulations.
How do you run TLP and DIYlaw in addition to being a Lead Counsel at FBN Capital. I am a client of yours and its overwhelming that you reply my mails at midnight most times and i wonder, this lady is still awake? Considering the fact you must have loads of clients , how do u guys, ladies i mean work it all out.
What will you say the difference is between TLP and DIYlaw? And its there a possible merger in the nearest future?
Well done again. Wishing you greater success!