Iphone App Idea..

venividivici

Hey folks, I hope there's no particular area I should be posting this but if there is just delete/move or whatever ya have to do, thanks..

Right here goes. As the title says I think I have a really good idea for an iPhone App but as of now all it is is a few scribbles in blue biro on an A4 pad. I'm not really a 'tech-head' at all so I have absolutely no clue where to even begin to speak to anyone about it or to even check if the App or something similar has already been done, apart from checking the AppStore of course. The App in particular I know would cost a lot of money to make as it would need a lot of work outside of the actual App itself, hope I'm making sense here, but if it is a good idea then there's no reason why I couldn't find people to put money into it.

Has anyone made an App before and if so how do you know who (developers etc) you can trust because if it is a genuinely good idea what's stopping someone from just stealing the idea? Where are these trustworthy people, lol? Is there alot of money to be made making Apps?

I think that's enough for now so thanks for any help or comments anyone has.

kjl

Yeah, I do iphone dev. I think if you don't know anything about making it then you really don't have a leg to stand on. Most of the time the intellectual property is in the development and not the original idea. Take facebook for example.

To be honest, I would just chalk it down to something you can't do, unless you are willing to put a lot of money into it.

Head_Hunter

You could patent your idea, then have it developed.

bren2002

Head_Hunter wrote: »

You could patent your idea, then have it developed.

You can't patent an idea, just it's implementation.

OCD

kjl wrote: »

Yeah, I do iphone dev. I think if you don't know anything about making it then you really don't have a leg to stand on. Most of the time the intellectual property is in the development and not the original idea. Take facebook for example.

To be honest, I would just chalk it down to something you can't do, unless you are willing to put a lot of money into it.

if that was the case, nothing would ever get done - we'd have to wait for developers to think of everything.

most clients don't own the IP outright but they are licensed to use it for the specific task or project it was developed for, e.g. when photographers take a professional photo, they own the photo but you (the client) would have licence to use it for the purpose you agreed with the photographer, say in a brochure or website. i believe you can also choose to but the rights to the photo fully and use it freely.

OP, i think you should enquire with several app developers, then pick one of them and ask them to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement). after that's signed, then discuss your idea in detail with that developer. you could agree up front to own the IP once it's completed (might cost you more) or you licence it from them (means they could use part of the program for another development).

OP, certainly don't give up! we're fubarred if all people with ideas give up!!

Fingleberries

bren2002 wrote: »

You can't patent an idea, just it's implementation.

I though that in the US you can patent the idea for tech things, can't you? That's why Amazon have the patent for 'one-click shopping', and others have similar silly patents.

Microsoft, Google and most of the tech companies have teams who sit around thinking up things to patent. Most never see the light of day, but if someone ever comes up with it and it becomes successful they can hit them up for breaching patent - or more importantly for licencing fees.



Good luck with the idea OP.

kjl

OCD wrote: »

if that was the case, nothing would ever get done - we'd have to wait for developers to think of everything.

Right, so can you think of any software that didn't come from developers?

Anyone can have an idea, but it takes the devoloper to actually figure out the hard parts. For example, you could have an idea to make a car that drives itself, thats your idea, but the its the developer that works out the algorithm to do it, so unless you're Alan Sugar or something, you would never be able to create the system.

Another example is facebook, which I did touch on in my last post. The idea for facebook was actually made by two guys who have nothing to do with it.

The basically approached this developer and said, what if there was a social network that allowed you to search for you friends using your webmail email contact list. The developer went along and developed the site, gave it the name facebook and the bucks started rolling in. The two guys came back to your man and asked for their share, he declined, the took him to court and he won the case because he did all the work, they just had an idea.

kjl

Fingleberries wrote: »

I though that in the US you can patent the idea for tech things, can't you? That's why Amazon have the patent for 'one-click shopping', and others have similar silly patents.

Microsoft, Google and most of the tech companies have teams who sit around thinking up things to patent. Most never see the light of day, but if someone ever comes up with it and it becomes successful they can hit them up for breaching patent - or more importantly for licencing fees.

Of course not, so can I patent the idea of a mobile phone, or a web server, or an operating system, or a social network

Dont be stupid.

Fingleberries

kjl wrote: »

Of course not, so can I patent the idea of a mobile phone, or a web server, or an operating system, or a social network

Dont be stupid.

That would be a good point, if those items did not already exist.

An interesting Ars Technica article about Controversial Amazon 1-Click patent survives review, or another article here

In 1997 Amazon filed for a patent, and it was granted, based on the one-click shopping model. It was not the technical implementation they patented, but the concept, even though it may have been considered 'obvious'. In 1999, Amazon sued competitor Barnes and Noble for having an 'Express Checkout' type system.

Here is an interesting (but long) read from the US FTC (Federal Trade Commission) about innovation - there are about 15 pages about software patents and the fact that patenting 'ideas' was a possibility and a potential pitfall of the patent system.

For further reading here is a treatment of Software Patents, and the flaws in the system.

Here is an article about Microsoft's 10,000th Patent.

IBM submit thousands of Patent submissions every year (I think their record was 4,000 in one year). They generate an additional $US 2 billion or so per year through licensing patented processes.

But I digress. Clearly I was stupid.



Back to the original topic of the thread.

If you have the idea for an application that you believe is possible, you can try to locate a developer who will work in it for you (outsourcing) or to help you identify if it is feasible or not.

It would be important, for your own sake, before engaging with third parties or an outsourced development team that you have good legal advice about what Non-Disclosure agreements you should have with these parties, what should be in the contract regarding the intellectual property (e.g. who will actually own it: You as the person who created the idea, or the developer who actually did the work to make the idea a reality), what type of agreement would you enter regarding payment to the developer (e.g. would they get paid for their work when completed, or should they get a percentage of the takings, etc.)

There is a good site for Irish App developers, and I am sure they would be able to help or point you in the right direction. They have a list of Developers and designers who may be available for contract work: http://www.apps.ie/developers.html

It might be worth contacting a designer first to help you work through your idea, before contacting the developer. Although, as both would then be outsourced you're looking for a bigger upfront cost.

Again, best of luck with the idea, vanividivici

Pittens

This post is at cross tangents. If you live in the US, and you have a lawyer or a team of them, you can patent an idea. In general you can't.

And yes idea's are great but implementation is better. Ideas and implementation are even better, and the world is pushed forward by engineering companies with ideas, not by a guy with an idea.

To give an example of the absurdity of the American system - someone ( more than one) - has patented a time machine. The idea is a machine which can go forward and back in time.

Now let's say that some brilliant scientist in the future actually solves the physics and the engineering problem for that. And he makes it his life work. He works himself to the bone... ( I know it cant be done - this is a thought experiment)

Whose idea is it?

Here is my idea - an glass plane which can fly faster than Mach 7. Everybody gets a great view. Am I a genius?

If I were to give that idea to an aerospace company and they were to build it at the cost of hundreds of thousands of hours of engineering work and problem solving, am I the inventor or are they?

The only time I will take ideas seriously as a dev ( and I make a living from iPhone dev) is if they come with fully mocked up pages, good design, and the artwork. Then the coding is part, not all, of the work.

kjl

This whole post reminds me of the ali g where he was saying that he came up with the idea for the playstation 2.