Writing a competitor app to one you've made for a customer

The_B_Man

Hi,

I wonder would anyone be able to answer this question I have, which may potentially arise in the not too distant future.

I've had an app idea for a few years in my head, but have never had the chance to make it. However, I like the idea and want to make it at some point as it has promise.
Now coincidentally, I could be hired as a freelancer to make an app which is VERY similar. There's differences, but they're noticeably similar. In fact, if both get made, they could be seen as being in competition.

My question is, if I was to take payment for making this app, and subsequently went and made my own app, do I open myself up for any backlash? Or does it come down to whether or not there's some kind of written contract which stipulates any competition rules?

On one hand, I look at Facebook/Twitter and Soundhound/Shazam and see that obviously you can make similar apps, but then I think about the Winklevoss twins who sued Mark Zuckerberg after he done exactly what I'm talking about above with ConnectU and Facebook (an extreme example and I'm not saying it'll be worth billions).

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

The Corinthian

First of all I'm going to presume that in producing your own app, you will not reuse any code, media or any other asset employed by the app you produced for the third party.

Even then you might be in dodgy territory. Have you reproduced the same or similar processes, user experience or functionality that you may have learned from your work for this third party? How much of an overlap in market is there? Are you direct, one-on-one, competitors?

Thing is that in this sort of situation the overlap can be sufficient to successfully take legal action. Even if that action ultimately fails, it can be used to impede or hamper your own venture - many years ago, a number of senior developers in a company I worked for left and started their own company that specialized in n-tier Web sites. For this they built their own framework to make doing so faster.

Thing is that this is what they'd already done for their previous employer. Of course their framework was original, but there was naturally an overlap on functionality. Their employer initiated legal action, tied them up for months, forced them to get legal council and on the court date didn't turn up. While it didn't totally derail them, it cost them a lot of time and money to deal with at a time where a new venture should be concentrating on surviving the first year.

Myself, I find myself in this situation often as I produce my own apps, while working for a company that also does so. The way I deal with it - the understanding we have - is that I don't reproduce anything too similar, keep all assets and resources (including my time) strictly separate and if there is an overlap it is in areas that you could find in any similar app development firm.

Not sure if that really answers your question, but honestly I don't think there's a straight answer. However, they're a few thoughts I'd have on the subject and how to avoid the most dangerous pitfalls.

Atomic Pineapple

I would guess it would depend on whats in the contract you sign for developing the version when freelancing. I'd imagine that you'd definitely not be able to use any of the code you wrote while doing the freelancing at a minimum.

Probably worth getting legal advice on the contract before you sign up to it?

The_B_Man

Hi,
Thanks for the replies.

Yes, if/when I break ground on mine, it'll be written from scratch. I'll also have to write my own backend. Since another party will be making their back end, I won't have access to the code there so mine will definitely be unique.

Regarding the contract, while I mentioned it in the first post, I don't actually think there will be one in the end. The job is more of a "friend of a friend" type thing, so if I was to make a direct competitor app, I suspect there won't be any laws broken, but I'll come across as a bit of a d*ck!

p

The_B_Man wrote: »

Regarding the contract, while I mentioned it in the first post, I don't actually think there will be one in the end. The job is more of a "friend of a friend" type thing, so if I was to make a direct competitor app, I suspect there won't be any laws broken, but I'll come across as a bit of a d*ck!

First - write a very basic contract, there's tons of templates online. Friends of friends are the types of projects that are the worst when it comes to this.

One approach, depending on how close the relationship is, you could be honest with them. Tell them you've been working on a similar app yourself, but not a direct competitor. Tell them all the stuff the corinthian said about code etc... Put the ball in their court. Offer them the chance to say no now if they're worried about any issues. That way they take the decision, not you.

Overall, unless you've a contract with a 'no compete' clause, it's still something that could burn bridges so be careful.

identer

First of all is the freelancing job on a thirdparty kind of stuff? i.e elance odesk and the rest, or it a one on one thing.
It is online, i do not think you need to worry that much.
But i belief you need to worry about taking your app to a level of envy before you start thinking of getting suied. And try not to repeat codes this maybe helpful for future envy suits.