Good morning.
My question is slightly different.
How can I secure my claims when it comes to an app idea?
Let's say I would give the idea and receive 30% of the profit, or £1 million (+tax) for relinquishing the rights to the profits, unless, the app would be resold to e.g. FB, then again 30% of the profit from the sale should be given to me.
If I tell some software studio about my idea, there is nothing to stop them from creating this or similar application.
I estimate that my app should gain millions of users in the first few months, on FB, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, Discord, and in fact all social media platforms. So you definitely need servers to maintain the databases. I don't have enough knowledge in maintaining servers and databases.
Any ideas on how to protect yourself? Patents go on forever, and I don't even have any idea if it's possible to patent an app.
Kind regards
As such, neither an app nor an idea is "patentable." To obtain a patent one must be able to fulfill their side of the patent bargain (you get a "monopoly" on your invention for a fixed period of time*, the World gets an invention). You must have a new idea (new to the world, in patent terms, "novel") that is both useful (a trivial test since if it was not useful you would not be screwing around with it) and non-obvious (essentially determined in the first instance by you, then by a patent examiner (he WILL reject it twice so be prepared), then on a first appeal by a Patent Office "judge" (consider that your first "fair" hearing, or if you are being hard headed, on a second appeal by a panel of judges (in the US that being the US Federal Circuit Court of $ppeals), or finally, to some top court that you will almost never get into unless your corp employees 100,000+ (in the US, that being the US Supreme Court). To qualify for a patent you MUST explain your idea is such detail that one "skilled in the art" (read a typical Engineering Office comprised of a number of skilled, knowledgeable workers) such that it can be practiced without "undue" (read a fair amount) of experimentation.
You idea could be "practiced" in an app. But you do NOT actually have to implement your idea, BUT you must enable others to be able to practice it (ex. one does not actually have to build a Nuclear Power Plant that incorporates a new idea jto get a patent).
Apps are "almost" always protected by the useless protection of copyright laws. If you want a valuable copyright direct a movie. Apps COULD be protected by the even more useless protection of trade marks. If you have $$$$$$$$$$$ you could try the totally useless and almost dead protection of the semiconductor protection act ([think custom chips] in the US, others countries have similarly useless protections).
Your idea of directly selling your idea is only practicable in a very few, specialized conditions (such as nobody else but YOU can implement your idea, or its your company buying the idea, or the govt. needs to cover its political asz ASAP, or you have something that is really, really, really needed very very fast [example, say 12 months ago you actually had an effective covid vaccine]).
Tell someone your idea in sufficient detail that its market potentional is clear and be prepared to watch it made available by the millions next week out of some Chinese town of 30 million people or so.
Patents do NOT go on forever. 20 years from the date of first filing (public disclosure). You MUST file before a public disclosure. Your patent effectively expires as soon as the Chinese can make money out of it.
First thing that should come to mind when seeking any protection for your app is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. You do NOT have enough of it.
The World patent system was pretty much made as a response to the needs of 1975 IBM. Those needs have morphed to fit the needs of 2020 large World Wide corps.
Suggestion: take very good care of Business. Yes, business. Not your idea. Build a superior product. Track your customers. Do right by them. Keep your idea as private and as low key as possible. Do NOT worry about someone jumping on you when you make $20.00 Others have the exact same problem you do. It is rare to the point of raw beef to find people ready to pounce on $20.00. Build up in the market place and practice your business as low key as possible. Never let anyone know how well you are doing. Say you made 2 billion $$$ last month, publicly you say you are doing okay, but things could be better. When you get rich beat the ones trying to pouncing on you with business acumen and position. See John D. Rockefeller. The man much preferred to bankrupt his opposition rather than waste time in a court of law. It took less time, cost less and was more effective.
*hahahaha Yea, sure, you betcha. If you have a really obviously valuable idea consider it gone. Search Google for a guy named Lemelson. He made out great: you get screwed. Note: almost all large companies cross-license each other. Keeps the riff-raff out.
