need advice on before proceeding with my idea to a coder! (legal form?)

i have a good idea to what i want to start , and i want to talk to a coder in building a software related to my website that is 75% done,now ,

this software i am not sure if exists yet,on the market ,but must be a software ,or a membership site ,i just need to know some advice how to proceed to make sure my idea

no one else will steal it! it may exists or it may not on the market,but just to know for me...

thanks for any advice!

regards

 

The only real protection in situations like this is to parcel out the work in little chunks to lots of coders so no individual coder can 'do the dirty' on you.

 

hmm,i understand!,if the hole job is giving then he can probably use the idea himself,
also,i was thinking that there is some kind of form that to have him sign before i tell him about my idea...

thanks

 

What you're looking for is NDA or Non-Disclosure Agreement. NDA is a legal document between two parties but it has to be certified by a notary service, which means both parties have to be physically present. Otherwise it's pretty much useless.

If you're dealing with people from abroad I would advise against. If you're serious about your project trust it to an established web agency, a professional. I don't know what kind of website you're building but if you're not sure such solution already exists on the market, somebody stealing your idea should be your last concern. Obviously you didn't do your job well. Why not research it, perhaps there's already a solution out there and you might cut your costs in half if not more.

 

I agree an NDA is probably useless because a lawsuit is unlikely to take place. Better to have trust in the people you work with. I will point out that an NDA does not require a notary in the United States to be valid. It is simply a contract like any other.

 

You have to deal with someone you trust. An NDA is just a piece of paper you can waive around in court - but you'll have to pay to go to court to enforce it.

 

only deal with some1 you trust

 

A NDA is only one part of the equation. The only thing that would protect against would be proprietary info anyway (not always the idea). The second part of the equation would be a non-compete clause that would prevent them from doing any work in the same field for a specified period of time. However, non-compete contracts are not enforceable in California (where it appears you are based). What do I mean?

Well, let's say you wanted to create a stock market website that not only displayed stocks and values, but told people what stocks they should buy. A NDA might legally prevent them (as was pointed out, it would not physically prevent) from telling others what type of site you were working on, but it more likely only prevent them from sharing the algorithim you used to determine which stocks to buy. Even if on the extreme end, the NDA prevented them from sharing with others the type of site you were building, it most likely not prevent them from creating their own site. Again, the only thing likely protected would be the proprietary algorithim for the site. A non-compete contract would prevent that person from building similar sites for a period of time, but again they are not binding in the state of California. If you have no unique algorithim, just a topic that is new to the internet, then you have nothing that you can really protect under the law.

So, your best options are:

1) Figure out how to do it yourself.
2) Work with a well known company that does this type of thing.
3) Make the other person a partner in the venture (you lose some value, but people are less likely to shoot themselves in the foot).
4) Work with someone you trust.

I put those in my order of preference. Not all the people we trust in life are trustworthy.

Option A) Get over it and just do it.

This option is lettered rather than numbered. It may rank above #1 or below #5, depending. Since we know little to nothing about your concept, it is hard to tell where it lands. However, think of it like this: if your site idea has no unique formula that makes it work then forget trying to protect it. As soon as you go live, the concept will be copied (and possibly legally so) if it is good (maybe even if it is bad). Meaning, you can't stop people from making new search engines, but you can stop them from using your search routine.

 

The best protection you can have is build it yourself or together with people you REALLY trust. Otherwise NDAs have no big impact and as many others pointed out in this thread, it's very unlikely they are a decent protection in most situations.

When it comes to copies tho, be certain that if your idea is original there will be dozens if not hundreds of clones in a month.

Still, in most cases you are in the best position, and here is why:

If you idea is that original and awesome than you are the one that built it first, and NOBODY can built it better than you by just "cloning". On the other side competition is good, if someone introduces a new feature you didn't thought of, you can use that, same as they used your concept in the first place. Then the big game begins and in the end, the most persistent company/individual wins.

 

Content Boss clearly has the best solution in this situation. No offense, but everyone just rehashed the same post over and over.

What you need to do is split up the coding in chunks. This will allow you obtain the primary, unique parts of code at a cost-effective price. Finally, you can hire a reputable firm to piece it all together. While this may be expensive, you are guaranteed that no one can truly "steal" the idea.

In addition, I would recommend applying for provisional patents and copyrighting the source code as a literary work (if the code isn't a breakthrough solution).

You can PM me if you would like some more advice on the matter.

 

Except for the firm that pieces it together, then he may not be any better off, as they would have the end result.

The issue with having multiple coders is simple:

If Coder1 does this....

then coder2 does that, then says this isnt working, because there is a flaw in coders1 work that will allow this to work....

If you know how to do this, then best thing is to do it yourself.

or you call upon RAC and hire multiple coders on NDA (if that would even work, i do not know)
nothing is ever private once it gets into the hands of someone else, and even then, any coder
can just about do whatever they would if they should want to duplicate your process.

 

People will steal anything, even if you make them sign a non-compete and confidentiality agreement how would you ever prove anything and the cost involved with proving it would be $10k-$100k+