Being the lazy guy I am, I enjoy when others serve up what to write about, I just have to connect the dots. Well, it doesn’t get any better than today, reading these two posts 3 minutes apart.
First there’s Valleywag’s story on how Sequoia’s investment in RockYou (service by NetPickle) turns more into a F***You (pardon my French
):
“Two months before Sequoia Capital, and a couple other investors, funded a Web 2.0 startup called NetPickle, the founders were accused of intellectual property theft by their former employer. They operate a photo slideshow service called RockYou; Iconix said the idea was developed while the founders were employed there; and a U.S. district court judge yesterday ruled against the Sequoia portfolio company.”
Next I’m reading VC Ratings via Paul Kedrosky on What Sequoia Capital Looks for in Startups:
Perhaps it’s time for Sequoia to add the 11th element: Clean IP Ownership. 
Update (11/17): Good chronology at GigaOM.
I doubt this part of the Valleywag story has the spin exactly right. In my experience, VCs in general have it on their core checklist to be careful about IP developed by teams who developed it while still at a prior company in the same space. There may be truth in it, but I think it’s unlikely it’s black-and-white if Sequoia invested.
How about linking back to the ORIGINAL CONTENT instead of giving Valleywag credit for a scoop it didn’t get. And you spelled Sequoia wrong.
My source was Valleywag; they refer to Private Equity Week, but that’s “behind some impenetrable registration wall”, so it wouldn’t be particularly useful to readers.
Thanks for catching the typo.