Intellectual property (IP) can become an issue when you work with third party providers, whether your employees or someone else’s. These steps can help protect your IP and keep source code safe.

1. Is the source code your only IP? Can someone easily
replicate your client list and market & sell to your
target industry? How much of a role do sales &
marketing play in your business? Once you define
what exactly is your IP, it’s easier to restrict access.
UPLOAD CODE TO
A SECURE SERVER
Make sure your source code is uploaded to a server
in the US, your own server, or the server of a
partner company in the US, at least once a week —
if not more often. This includes all code that is
currently being written. This way, you always have
the latest code available to you. Monitor what is
actually being uploaded.
MAKE SURE VENDORS
UNDERSTAND IP
Inquire how intellectual property is viewed in the
partner’s company. Do they teach about IP and how
it should be protected in-house?
ENSURE PROPER
LEGAL PROTECTION
Ensure, at a minimum, that both you and your
technology partner sign NDAs directly with each of
your team members. Look at contracts between
the 3rd party company and their employees to
determine who owns the work they are doing for
you. How will rights be assigned back to you?
RESPECT DATA PRIVACY
With 99.9% of our clients, we have no access to user
data or production — nor do we want it. Any DB
data that is used or sent to us for testing is sanitized
of all personal information beforehand, so we get
access only to code, PM tools, and bug tracking.
Further access is strictly need-to-know. When code
security is an issue, we upload code daily to the
client’s server.
FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES HAVE THE
SAME CONCERNS. WE KNOW BECAUSE
SOFTJOURN WORKS WITH THEM
If you would like to talk about this further and how
we work with other companies around IP issues,
contact Softjourn at +1.510.744.1528 .
CONTRAC T
IDENTIFY YOUR IP
Intellectual property
when working with 3rd
party developers
Intellectual property (IP) can become an issue when you work with
third party providers, whether your employees or someone else’s.
These steps can help protect your IP and keep source code safe.