Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Missouri

Software Concept Protection

I am a software developer who created a piece of software which has been popular with others in testing. A company has approached me so they can hire me in order to develop this idea solely for them. I'm considering asking for a % of sales, but if they balk and I turn them down, I wonder if they can just have someone else work on the idea they received from my program. They also liked the ''look'' of my program, so if I didn't work for them, I imagine they would try to mimic the look and feel as well. Would this be legal?


Asked on 5/24/07, 9:07 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Daniel Pepper Pepper Law Group, LLC

Re: Software Concept Protection

I will assume from your post that you did not have any sort of non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement in place with this company when you presented them with the idea. You may have certain copyrights in the software, which would prevent them from copying the code, but unless you have some form of patent on the software, it may be difficult to prevent them using the idea, which is not protected by copyright.

I'd be happy to discuss the situation further with you to go over your options.

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Answered on 5/25/07, 9:25 am


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