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How to protect my App Idea?

appleute has summarized the most important points to protect your app idea.

How to protect my idea for an app with a confidentiality agreement or an NDA

There is a very simple, safe and straightforward way to protect your app idea. All App development agencies will recommend that you sign a confidentiality agreement or non-disclosure agreement - known by the acronym NDA - with the people you share your idea with. An NDA should be signed to ensure that you are well protected against people or companies stealing your idea for an app and capitalizing on it. Here we have recommendations on the Share your app idea.

What should a non-disclosure agreement / NDA cover for a App idea include? As with most agreements and other legal contracts, it should cover the following items:

1) Parties involved in the agreement / NDA and legal information about them:

Name and surname of the person or, for companies, the company name and the name and surname of its representative. The representative has to be an employee or any other person that is legally entitled to represent the company in a contract. Some contracts require the parties to attach a scan of the representative’s identity cards in order to make the representatives involved clearly identifiable. Some NDAs stipulate that only a clearly defined subset of employees can access the information disclosed. However, this is rare. Also, some contracts require the CEOs of the companies to sign the agreement.

Most often, a NDA contract is between two parties. In some scenarios, an NDA can involve more parties.

2) The conditions of the agreement

It has to be specified

(1) what the parties involved agree to

(2) what is meant by „confidential information“

(3) the rights and obligations of each party.

We often find that companies, especially freelancers, tend to sign or are unwilling to sign a confidentiality agreement or a non-disclosure agreement about something very general. This is because especially small companies, startups or SMEs as well as self-employed freelancers often do not have a legal team to back them up. A good non-disclosure agreement is one that contains all the details and covers all the ifs.

3) The purpose or goal of the agreement

Every agreement has a purpose. In connection with the sharing of an app idea or the intellectual property associated with an app, a statement shall be made to the effect that the NDA does not permit the exchange of information regarding the development of a mobile application / Web application / hybrid application concerns.

4) Dispute resolution set in the agreement

The conditions for arbitration in the event of a dispute should be clearly defined. This is essential for scenarios in which the parties of the agreement reside in different countries.

5) Making edits to or cancelling the agreement

An NDA can offer the option to opt out, edit or cancel given the consent of all parties involved.

6) Signature with date and place, signature and place

Each agreement requires a signature. The date and place of the signatory must also be added. The division of intellectual property is important if a collaboration is planned. The latter is more than necessary when developing an app. Most of the time, the synergy effects exceed those of a single person working alone on the development of an app. appleute translates to app people, which is an indication that creating and launching an app requires more than just one person. To facilitate and encourage collaboration, we offer an NDA for our clients. To access the appleute NDA (pdf), click here.