Hello ! I came up with a great software idea but as I'm a web designer/developer I don't have any skills in developing a software and finding a trustful programmer can be hard. Seems like all of them are trustful at the beginning.. Anyway, I would like to secure my idea but how ? I read that software patenting isn't a good idea and also I have to patent it in every country (it's ridiculous). What other options I have to protect my software idea. Seems like theres no such thing yet and can get huge popularity. Just when writing a last row I thought how theres no skype clones ? How did skype patent their idea ? Thanks! sogastic
Maybe Skype just marketed the idea best? Maybe there are clones but we haven't heard of them? You could always develop it as a Web App is you're a web developer. You could sell accounts to access it rather than copies of the software.
Patents are way behind the times and takes 10-20k and 3 years to get approved. The best thing to do is contract a programmer and have a professional NDA/Non compete signed before telling them any of your secrets. Sometimes thats even hard to get signed. Without that paperwork, someone can run with your idea, just look at the facebook lawsuit. With paperwork signed, if they execute your idea and hit it big, it should be a nice chunk of change for you.
During the development process you can protect your idea as said above with a non-disclosure agreement. Once it hits the market though, it's a different story. Ideas cannot be protected by copyright or patent. If you did patent it, the best you could do would be to patent a specific process. If somebody can think of a way to get the same results using a different method then they would be able to sell it without any violation. And Skype has many competitors: Woize, Firefly, PalTalk, Gizmo Project, etc.... Direct clones of Skype are difficult because Skype created its own protocol (which it can control or change at any time to prevent clones from working on their network. But the concept behind Skype is not protected and has been repeated many times.
First, you shouldn't worry about getting a patent in every country. That is enormously expensive. Also, pretty much the only country that would issue a software patent is the US, which also happens to be the largest market in the world, so getting a US patent would likely be all you could do and all you would really need. What you might want to think about is filing what is called a provisional patent application. A provisional patent application can be filed much cheaper than a nonprovisional application, but it will protect what you have and also allow you to use the terms "patent pending." To be able to protect the software you should create flow charts that explain the process. You do not need to be able to write the code, you just have to explain enough to a programmer so they could write the code based on your requirements. You should still try and get confidentiality agreements signed. I have some you can use if you like at nondisclosure agreements. The provisional application will stay pending for 12 months. In that time you can determine whether it makes sense to move forward with trying to get a patent. To get a software patent you would be looking at waiting at least 3 years I would say, and the ultimate cost can be quite expensive. If you start development without filing at least a provisional application you will eventually lose the right to seek a patent. So going with a provisional application hedges your bet. If it looks like it will be something big then trying to get a patent would make sense. It would certainly make you a more attractive buy out target. If you have questions let me know. Good luck. -Gene Patent Attorney & Founder of IPWatchdog.com
my two pence worth be carefull on patent as to be honest it means jake unless you patent ever inch and ever inch that could be changed. as to win a patent court fight the two copys have to be different and that could easy be done by adding somethink dif or takeing somethink away changeing the way it looks and so on. This true for the uk not sure on any where else As i work in the carton trade and we have this problem all the time and our company has lost a few court cases as there was a difrence in each products So dont waste your money yet
Thank you all specially you Ipwatchdog . I'll go into the links you gave and hope I'll have a good read . I wasn't so sure about patent yet but seems like patent will be really really expensive. I have to patent in most countries ^^. It's like skype that many people from different countries would like to use it (My idea has nothing to do VOIP calls.. or how they were called and speaking over the internet). And it would be kinda selfish to put patent on it. Thanks! sogastic