California Code of Civil Procedure

How does paying the fees become a vulnerability?

It becomes a huge vulnerability because of a unique and incredibly strict set of rules in the California Code of Civil Procedure, specifically Sections 1281.97 and .98.

By obligating themselves to pay the fees to make the contract fair, Anthropic exposes themselves to California's rigid payment deadlines.

How strict are these deadlines? Like, what happens if, uh, an invoice just gets delayed in the accounting department?

And I did a 998.

It's a California Code of Civil Procedure 998 offer.

And it was a lowball offer.

It was just basically, you know, to make it so that – and then what happened – Stop.

Let's talk law.

California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1001 restricts confidentiality provisions and certain settlement agreements involving claims of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and specified forms of harassment or discrimination.

In covered circumstances, the law prohibits, uh, provisions that prevent or restrict disclosure of factual information related to the claims.

It also provides that prohibited provisions are void as matter of law and against public policy, subject to statutory exceptions.

California Civil Code Section three thousand four hundred twenty-six point one B two B Roman two treats disclosure or use as misappropriation when the knowledge was acquired under circumstances giving rise to a duty to maintain its secrecy or limit its use, and Section three thousand four hundred twenty-six point one D requires independent economic value from secrecy and reasonable efforts to maintain it.

Under California Code of Civil Procedure Section two thousand nineteen point two one zero, a plaintiff must identify the trade secret with reasonable particularity before discovery on the claim begins, so a startup should keep a dated inventory of what it showed each advisor.

Delaware Statute six Del C.

Section, section two thousand one through two thousand nine allows injunctions under Section two thousand two, damages and exemplary damages up to twice the award for willful and malicious misappropriation under Section two thousand three, and attorney fees under Section two thousand four with a three-year limit under Section two thousand six.