It takes a lot of imagination and hard work to finally get together an app idea together; an app idea that is unique and has never been seen or heard before. Now imagining the fact that it might get copied or stolen is as dreadful as it gets. But yes this might happen, you finally pull a rabbit of your hat, talk to the investors, arrange a management team to make it real and all of a sudden get to know that it is already in the market. This can leave any entrepreneur shattered. So to make sure that you protect your app idea like your newborn baby, you have to take these following steps.
No opening up to others
It is always cool and exciting to talk to others about a masterpiece you have just assembled. Talking about numerous days and nights you gave in to finally construct it. But how sure you can be that this particular person will not copy or steal your self-developed idea. You can’t trust anyone in this world especially in the area of such high competition and minimum opportunities.
People will not care a bit before stealing your idea because they too want to earn money and if they come across an idea that is just brilliant and sets apart from all the monotonous ideas they hear, they give a second thought before stealing it. Leave alone investors, start-up fellows or developers even your closed ones can’t be trusted with this delicate prospect. So, keep your idea in the locker until and unless you make it real.
Choosing trustworthy developers
It is a harsh reality that people you choose to work with on making your idea a reality can also copy your idea without you having any clue. It is hard to assemble a team that can be trusted completely. Giving your idea in the hands of mobile app developers that can be trusted is a paramount step.
You have to take it a step by step before assembling a team for your project. Look for their history. This is important because the person you hand your idea should not have a lot of bad experience on his profile. Take a closer look at their website profile. They should have a decent history in this field. Also, give your idea to an established mobile app development company over some bunch of freelancers because the company would think of their established name before committing such a cheap act, they would avoid doing anything that can tarnish your image. On the other hand, freelancers don’t have an image to maintain so they would straight up steal the idea in order to make money and get famous.
Another thing that you can do is look at their experience in this field. Look at the portfolio they have worked on and how they panned out in the market. Look at the years they have been in this field. This will place your idea in safe hands.
Do some research and find out if these developers have worked with any of your known.
Do some searching on different platforms to check out the trustworthy developers out there on the basis of ratings and reviews. This will give you a fair idea of developers that can be trusted with your idea.
Copyright
This is the first thing that will come to anybody’s mind that is looking to protect his property from being stolen or being copied. Copyright is simply a legal right provided to the person who created the original work to determine if another person can use his work and if yes, then up to what extent. Copyright is a great way of looking after your original work. But it is harsh that idea does not come under original work, so you cannot copyright an idea.
So, how can you get the benefit of copyright on your app idea? You can’t protect your idea with its help but you can surely copyright your app after it has been developed. It will protect your source codes and UI. But you only be benefited if someone completely copies your app without making serious alterations to your app.
Non-disclosure agreement
As it can be understood from its name, a non-disclosure agreement is an agreement that is signed between you and the mobile app developers. The basic thing entitled by this agreement is that all the ideas that are shared by you to the app developers are confidential and should not be compromised or shared with any third party at any cost. Find developers that are fine with working under this agreement as they can be trusted. The guidelines of these agreements should be made clear at the start of the project so that no misunderstandings creep in afterward. This agreement gives the power to the client to go to the court if he feels that his idea has been compromised. The developers if guilty will have to face consequences and look after the financial damage done to the client from the breakdown of the agreement.
So, in short, if you are looking to share your precious idea with some app developers than be sure to make it safe by signing a non-disclosure agreement in advance.
Trademark
It is another way of protecting your app from being copied or its contents were stolen. Now, you will be thinking that will it be able to protect my idea but sadly it can’t. But why? Because you need to have a logo or symbol for your idea to be protected by a trademark. The trademark guidelines explain that it will protect the appearance of your app but not the functionality of your app. So, in case, someone takes your app with its functionality and just change the appearance and logo of its, then it will not be called trademark infringement.
In the start, it will seem like trademark is a complete waste of time as it does not allows you to protect your idea but its importance can only be understood once you create an app and see how the app and its downloads stay protected by the trademark.
Patenting
It is another way of protecting your app from being stolen or copied but in some countries, it is not allowed to patent software. It is a costly, long and tiring process where you have to hire professional attorneys to represent you. But once you hire these guys they will look after the process and this tricky process will become easy for you. So, patenting is a process that can surely be considered in order to protect your app.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that if you are worried about your idea being stolen, then sit back and relax because there are many ways to protect your idea and in the worst case scenario, even if your idea gets stolen then there are many ways to prove that it was yours in the first place.
So just relax and think of the forward steps that are required to convert your idea into an app.
