legal, mobile-apps, intellectual-propertyI talked out loud about an app I’ve wanted to build for a card game I play a lot, at a tournament of said card game, and one of the players was a fellow programmer who absolutely loved the idea. He first wanted to make an open source, free of charge solution but I made it clear that I want to be compensated for any work I put in which he eventually agreed to. We did not know each other at all before this discussion, and we’ve built a skeleton app and have booked our calendars for coding sessions.
Now, here’s my question; if this would’ve been something I’d kept to myself, I would just code the app, release it and cash in but now that there’s a guy who have the opportunity to screw me over here, it immediately looks more complicated to me. What’s the easiest way to make sure that our respective shares of the revenue is protected from each other and that the ownership of the app is shared between us? This is just a hobby project for both of us and I don’t think this idea has the potential to earn more than a couple thousand, but I’m putting valuable time into this and I want to know I’ll get something back. We don’t need any capital, only our expertise to get this thing running.
You could co-author a contract that includes the terms both of you agree to, and then run that by a lawyer to make sure it’s enforceable and you didn’t leave out anything crucial. Once you update it per your lawyer you both sign it and both get a copy.
A similar approach is to find a boilerplate partnership agreement online and modify it to fit your situation. You still both sign it and both retain a copy.
The easiest – and only – way is to sign a contract. It’s really as simple as that.
Cook up a contract whereby you’re on revenue share for the app and call it a day. Or create a company together.
And don’t worry too much about having shared your idea. If your partner is as passionate as you are, the last of his preoccupations will be to screw around with you. Work as a team. It’s essential to your success.
If you don’t actually want to work with the chap, on the other hand, tell him up front – in a polite way. An idea is worthless without execution, and it’s not obvious at all that he’d follow through with the idea without you. And even if he did, is it that much of a big deal? (You’ll have a competitor building awareness at your side. Embrace it.)
It does sound as if the relationship is slightly adversarial - which is a huge red flag. Developing a revenue-generating product (often) requires much more than just coding. Let’s say you want to market the product and reach a wider audience - how would this be handled with a revenue split? I’d be very skeptical about moving forward with a partnership that is not built on shared goals.
One option would be to have an attorney draft a letter of separation, in which you two agree to “split” the IP - essentially meaning that you both could develop the app. That way you could walk away and develop the app however you would like. Given the odds of success on the app store, there’s still very little risk (and someone will copy your app once it becomes mildly successful anyway).
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