How do I protect my ideas?

Dear Aunty B,

I have a software idea that I am preparing a business case for. I have neither an IT nor a marketing background, but am confident the product has a (niche) place on the market.

As I am not IT savvy I’m looking to use an IT professional or student to help me set it up. How can I protect my concept from both the IT professional/student and the rest of the market while it is in development and again from any vendors while we are trailing it?

IT wannabe
Vic

Dear IT wannabe,

You are not alone. Every person you see has an idea for a business – many of them software. But you are wrong to assume that everyone wants to nick your ideas! I meet a lot of people who act in the most ridiculous manner, refusing to tell you what they are doing. To me that is not protecting your idea: it is merely paranoid delusional madness.

To be an entrepreneur you must be a good judge of people. You team up with someone who is an IT developer and want to stay an IT developer and is happy to take money from you being an IT developer. It isn’t hard to find those. (Anyone interested send in your details and I forward you on to IT wannabe.) You can also make them sign agreements to prevent the disclosure while in development.

You can use patents and trademarks to protect the software, design and logo as well.

But software can be hard to protect because it is quite often easy to reverse engineer. So what you need to do is get to market as fast as possible and then build up other barriers to entry like great customer relations and service.

The best bet for you is to go and have a few coffees with some of the reputable software companies in your field and ask the entrepreneurs for some tips. How did they do it? You never know, that might be an interesting conversation! But remember, there is a fine line between paralyzing paranoia and a sensible approach to business.

One last thing, you are also making a mistake to think the idea needs protection. An idea is nothing without a business. So get busy and build a business that actually does need protection. Otherwise you will join the millions of wannabes who float around the planet with their great idea that never gets off the ground.

Good luck,
Your Aunty B

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