4 Ways to Protect Your Project when Outsourcing IT Development
February 23rd, 2016
Competition is always tough and often there are disputes about who came up with the idea first (think of Apple and Samsung). What can you do to make sure your project idea remains safe and protected?
One of the industry's standard is signing an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). We have discussed seven reasons you'd consider signing an NDA on our blog before, but what are the other ways?
Copyright Laws
If you are outsourcing to another country, take the time to investigate (or ask your lawyer to do so - might be more efficient) the copyright laws of that country.
Ukraine's copyright laws can be found on the website of the World Intellectual Property Organization's website.
Portfolio & Testimonies
Check out the company's portfolio and client's testimonies. While portfolio can be found on the company's website, check what people are saying about the company elsewhere (besides the company website). In other words, check out the reputation of the company online.
Check out Grossum's portfolio and testimonies here.
Access
Ask the outsourcing company for the access to your project's code repository, servers, and project management tools (like JIRA that Grossum uses, BaseCamp, or other). Not that you need to constantly be there as a watchdog, but if the company refuses to do it - that's a red flag. As an owner of the idea, you should have access (even if you will never use it).
NDA or NCC?
Another thing should be said about NDAs. Non-Disclosure Agreements are good, but they are not invincible. Adding an NCC (Non-Compete Clause) into your contract, on the other hand, legally prevents your developer (or whoever you sign the contract with) to compete with your project. The reason why an NCC might be a better idea is that the developer, without sharing your idea with anyone else, can use your idea to create a similar project himself. NCCs are usually signed for a period of about 5 years or so.
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