Intellectual Property Rights and Code Writers

“Large streams from little fountains flow, tall trees from little acorns grow”, most great Internet ideas start small from somebody’s garage or front room. It is important to remember that what seems to be just fun for you may one day become very valuable.

When suddenly your good idea becomes a great idea like Paypal, Ebay, Yahoo!, Netscape Navigator you then suddenly become a target for others who are in the same sapce or think they got there first.

The problem of who owns what does not seem an important one until suddenly your concept is valued at millions of dollars. It should be important to you from the outset. When commissioning developers ownership of the intellectual property rights in the end product should be very specific. The developer will be writing the code using its tools, software and business methods. It may also be using third party software. So the developer may use its own methodologies, source code, object code, know how, trade secrets or inventions (whether or not patentable).

The client may not be entitled to the creative development process behind the developers work. The client will be entitled or should be entitled to the end-product. The client may be entitled to the object code underlying the creative work.

There is also the issue of the scrip code being secure enough to withstand the numerous attacks of hackers. The time where you simply put up a sleek looking website and start trading is past you now need to consider the issues involved more carefully.