Lancet Worldwide Outsourcing News

Some Good Practices of software offshore outsourcing to consider before initiating the actual project

In software development, if the issue of Intellectual Property Rights is addressed at the inception of the project it will eliminate uncalled-for grief later. If IPR issues are not anticipated and not taken care of at the very beginning, unwarranted damage control at the later stage of the project can be a possibility. Knowing about the Best Practices will minimize the risk of Intellectual Property loss.

Some of the Best Practices to prevent loss of Intellectual Property are as follows:

1. Get an overview of the intellectual property rights legislation and their practical implementations in the country where you intend to outsource.

2. Make sure you monitor throughout the life of the project any violations to your intellectual property and if possible even set a IPR team in your organization.

3. Copyright your envisioned software package by identifying the critical elements of your copyright and their applicability in the country where you are outsourcing.

4. Acquire knowledge through case studies about the degree of protection afforded to Intellectual Property by knowing the actual cases of court judgments handed out against violators or software pirates in the country you are planning to outsource.

5. Insert a well defined IPO violation clause outlining the consequences in your contract with your vendor.

6. Perform Periodic IP Audit and examine any new work that needs copyrighting and assign the right ownership of the patent.

7. Get the outsourcing vendors to sign non-disclosure agreement (NDA) prior to releasing information about the software you would like to get developed.

Lancet Worldwide, Akbar Burney - Technical Outsourcing Consultant

Published Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:18:39 -0400

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