How to Protect Intellectual Property When Outsourcing

Introduction

“How to protect your Intellectual Property while outsourcing?”

“How to feel safe when you’re outsourcing software development for your company”?

These are common questions people have when they use the services of a software development company for the first time.

However, you don’t have to worry about having your ideas stolen if you choose the right partner.

From our perspective, inspiring trust in the client when we work on an outsourced project is one of the highest priorities. That’s why we’ve prepared a list of strategies to help you feel safe about partnering up with an outsourced company.

How to protect intellectual property?

#1 Contract

Based on our contract, intellectual property over the technology/code is being transferred to your company. This is really important as not all companies include it in their contracts, so keep an eye out for that! Rights protecting the IP vary from country to country so do your research about the place you outsource from. Ideally, you should have your own contract or ask the software development agency to send you one to review and consult with your legal department.

#2 Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

This is a basic measure that protects our customers’ Intellectual Property. We sign it each time we start working with a new partner. The NDA is signed by us as a company and developers who have access to your code/technology, so you are double protected. If you don’t have an NDA ask your software development agency to provide you with one.

See an Example of a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

#3 Non-Compete Agreement (NCA)

NCA prevents the outsourced company from revealing your ideas/innovations to competitors. The idea is that as an agency or a developer, you can’t enter a partnership with a potential competitor of your client for an agreed amount of time. It can be signed by companies and individuals (freelance developers) alike.

#4 Non-Binding Letter of Intent

It’s a non-binding declaration of a software development agency or customer to indicate the interest in a cooperation. It’s more like a mental commitment from both sides to the terms and goals of a project.

#5 API access

If an API is created, we can connect to the ready-made part of the secure software and treat it as a black box. Of course, we can help you build the API first if you don’t have one already. The reason why is that you don’t need to give us access to your code or functionality, which is crucial for your business – if you still don’t feel secure enough to do it.

#6 Data access

Data access is crucial in protecting the security of your Intellectual Property. We don’t give all our employees full data access but only an anonymized part of it on their local copy. This allows us to have control over which data could be taken away.

#7 Server access

Only selected employees have access to the servers to do the maintenance jobs (updating the application and the database), so the access to the data is limited. You can be confident about your app development!

#8 SSL Certificate Only

We authenticate our developers to both our internal and external services only using secured SSL certificates.

#9 Company with a proven track record

As in any other industry, doing a thorough research always proves best in choosing a service provider. Have a look at the company’s portfolio, and read through the testimonials and references from other customers. Those things build trust, the most important asset of a software development company.

Protect intellectual property, but trust is also key

As a software house, we’ve been building our portfolio and collecting testimonials from happy customers for years to gain more trust in the eyes of our future partners. All this, so our clients feel confident about the services we provide.

We simply can’t afford to let you feel insecure. It could easily kill our business based on trust and good references. We love what we’re doing and our passion drives us to constantly improve the security of our development process.

So far, the security measures listed above have proved sufficient to instill trust in our clients and avoid breaching the Intellectual Property rights at any point.

However, should anything extra be needed to make you feel safe/protected/confident about your cooperation with a software house – go ahead and just request it.

The most important thing in this business is trust. If you’re negotiating with a company serious about their trade, they will be just as serious about your concerns.