Freelance web developers & IP legal experts combine!
February 8, 2009 3:02 PM   Subscribe

I want to build a web app, but can't do it all myself. What's the best way to make sure my ideas aren't picked up by others?

I've read up on freelancing a little, as well as sites like RentACoder, Elance, etc. I'm not necessarily concerned about engaging a developer as such, but more about how to go about protecting the IP itself. I haven't really been able to find anything related on Mefi or Google (or the rest of das InterSchnauzer for that matter).

Is this sort of thing commonly done with some kind of memorandum of understanding, or confidentiality agreement? Given that there are some distinctive skill requirements to parts of the web app, would it work to use that to compartmentalise it a little, and engage separate people?

Am I overthinking the whole thing & should I just go with trust?
posted by MatJ to Technology (11 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Most freelancing coding sites allow buyers (you) to require that prospective bidders sign an NDA prior to reviewing the jobs specs.

Good luck enforcing it.
posted by Doofus Magoo at 3:12 PM on February 8, 2009


Am I overthinking the whole thing?

Yes.
posted by chrismear at 4:00 PM on February 8, 2009


Best answer: Am I overthinking the whole thing & should I just go with trust?

Ultimately you'll have to, and humans will always be weak. Your collaborators probably won't rip you off and turn into billionaires by "inventing" Facebook.com (ahem).... but they could, and unless you start out with a giant war chest to fight in court forever, or make your first step breeding a nobler race of man... it's always a risk you should be ready to work around.

A lot of entrepreneurs daydream about perfect systems where they invent and then own a market. With heroes like Microsoft around, who can blame them for these fantasies? But leaving aside whether it would be "right" to do so, you can't realistically build a monopoly without tremendous luck and government support anyway. So instead, just do the thing you do well. Keep on finding a way to do Your Thing better and better and better. Stay one step ahead of the copycats (whether they're ex-collaborators with your plans, or black box reverse-engineering teams in India is irrelevant, really), and be happy with a successful product and satisfied customers: the rest takes care of itself.

Imagine years later, when you have significant size and revenue flowing. Now, you can either spend half your resources and effort perpetually defending your ideas and trying to protect your small, locked-in-to-you market by making sure you're the only game in town.... or you can spend all your effort and resources making your product better, your market bigger, and your users happier. Do that well enough and who cares if you're now only one of four workalikes? You'll be more successful AND have a better product in an entire industry that's bigger and better off in all ways.

It doesn't matter if these competitors are competing with you fairly or unfairly, whether they stole "your ideas" from working with you or whether they took screenshots in a Russian sweatshop and make workalike code all on their own. Your best response is the same: let everyone else fight over pieces, while you work on growing the whole pie. Your business and your soul end up much stronger for it.

[ That's a short version of a presentation I used to give to internet entrepreneurs about 10 years ago during the last big internet buildup. I skipped the part on patents and trademarks and such, which yes you also do as basic common sense, but don't let it consume you. ]
posted by rokusan at 4:48 PM on February 8, 2009 [3 favorites]


I dont think you understand what IP is. IP isnt an idea nor a business plan. IP are accepted patents, copyrights, and tradenames. You cant protect "sell t-shirts with funny sayings on the net" and its foolish to try.

Eventually, a lot of people will know your plan before you can even start your business. This is a mild risk everyone in business takes.

Ideas are a time a dozen. Take a chance on yours. Most wont.
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:42 PM on February 8, 2009


Best answer: You're looking to start a business. If you haven't included the cost of an attorney in your model, there's no telling what other almost mandatory expenses you aren't considering.

Spend the money to have a consultation with a lawyer. Not just about this particular issue, but about the many others involved with starting up a new business.

Put another way: you might think you can't afford an attorney. You can't afford not to have one, for this and a lot of other reasons.

Facebook's feud with HarvardConnect/ConnectU is an example of how difficult these things can be to litigate but my understanding is that most of that difficulty came from ConnectU's failure to document the agreements in a way that was provable and legally significant. Things might have gone much differently for them (keep in mind that they ended up settling, not losing) had they spent the time and money to get a lawyer to write these things out. Instead, they now get to listen to countless news stories a day about how an allegedly stolen piece of software has made some other guy worth billions.

What's it going to cost to get some solid NDAs/Non-competes drawn up? Who knows. Call around. Find an attorney or firm that you trust with some experience with entrepreneurs and use them to keep you out of as much trouble as you can.

Don't spend all of your money trying to law people into or out of things, but do cover your own ass.

Saying "someone can always try to steal your stuff, so don't bother thinking about it" is about like saying "Someone can always crash through your window to rob your house, so don't bother locking the door."
posted by toomuchpete at 6:42 PM on February 8, 2009 [1 favorite]


Best answer: You cant protect "sell t-shirts with funny sayings on the net" and its foolish to try.

No, but you can certainly keep someone from using the exact code they wrote for you to turn around and create your competitor.

Ideas are a dime a dozen, the work that goes into putting one into action is much more valuable. The latter is what one should be trying to protect.
posted by toomuchpete at 6:44 PM on February 8, 2009


He specifically is asking about ideas, not code:

What's the best way to make sure my ideas aren't picked up by others?
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:50 PM on February 8, 2009


Response by poster: Thanks for the great answers so far.

Just to clarify, I kind of meant both "ideas" and "code", in that I know you can't necessarily protect an idea per se, but whether there was anything I could do that would minimise the ability of someone pulling a blatant copy & paste.

I'm finding both angles completely relevant & helpful - please don't let my lazy english frame your answers; advice in whatever shape is welcome.
posted by MatJ at 7:54 PM on February 8, 2009


IAASoftwarePatentAttorney, but IANYSPA.

You could expect to spend at least $10k for a software patent application drafted by a knowledgeable patent attorney. The course of the application prosecution would dictate how much additional attorney's fees you rack up. The Patent Office is making software patents harder to obtain, thus increasing your costs.

So you could ask yourself, "Is my idea worth spending $10-25k to try to protect via a patent?"
posted by Napoleonic Terrier at 9:24 PM on February 8, 2009 [1 favorite]


So you could ask yourself, "Is my idea worth spending $10-25k to try to protect via a patent?"

Great advice from NT, but note that every inventor believes that yes, their idea is.

Get other opinions.
posted by rokusan at 9:34 PM on February 8, 2009


Best answer: He specifically is asking about ideas, not code:

What's the best way to make sure my ideas aren't picked up by others?


He clearly wasn't, but assume he was: the easiest way is to make it difficult for them to implement. Ideas are cheap and everyone has them. But nobody really cares about someone else having their idea, what they care about is people implementing their idea, and that's far more likely to happen if you hand someone the implementation lock, stock, and barrel rather than if they have to actually do the work themselves. This is especially true with respect to websites.

Also, don't be so sure that you can't protect ideas. You can't copyright them, true, but in states that recognize non-compete agreements, you can certainly keep a former employee from running off and starting their own, competing company (at least for a while) with them, and enforceable non-competes are something a good business lawyer would be able to help with in your particular jurisdiction.
posted by toomuchpete at 10:03 PM on February 8, 2009


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