How to protect your mobile app?

A mobile app can be a source of revenue, so any business would not want to lose this asset. However, a mobile app can be copied, causing the actual value to be greatly diminished. An app is made up of many elements, from the idea itself to the internal design. Each of these elements must be protected independently. You can read about how to protect a mobile app in our article.

Table of Contents:

Protection of mobile app code and their escrow

The heart of any mobile app is code. It is protected by copyright, i.e. it has the same status as works of science, literature and art. The objects of copyright are protected without any registration unlike the patent rights. Therefore, when you create a mobile application, you get copyrights. Among the copyrights the exclusive right takes a special place. The holder of exclusive right, i.e. right holder, has the right to determine ways, scope and terms of mobile application use. So if you plan to sell your app, you will transfer the exclusive right to the code.

Despite the fact that copyrights do not need to be registered in any way, there are several ways to confirm the authorship at the time of creation:

Register the copyright with the RCS (Russian Copyright Society);
Validate with a notary;
Register in the Register of Computer Programs, which is maintained by Rospatent.

All methods are voluntary. The latter is the most common, but does not give any guarantees in accordance the Russian practice. The Supreme Court indicated that the person in the Register is recognized as the author, but this can be disproved in court. Relatively new methods include escrow in WIPO PROOF, which was created by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Firstly, it allows you to confirm the content of a digital file at a certain point in time, so WIPO PROOF is an online depository. Secondly, WIPO PROOF issues a token as proof of escrow.

Still, the courts are highly critical of escrow, though. The Supreme Court has confirmed that there are no legal consequences associated with escrow, and therefore no protection granted.

Protecting the interface of a mobile app

The interface plays a big role in terms of the popularity of a mobile app among users, which is why it can have the most value. It is possible to protect the interface of an application from a number of angles. First, part of the interface in the form of algorithms is incorporated in the app’s source code. However, this is a very fine line here, because functional solutions will not be protected by copyright. Secondly, the interface can be registered as an industrial design. This regulation is also relevant to Europe, Japan and the USA.

Standard internal functionality cannot be protected. However, if the app’s functionality is original enough, it might have protection. For example, the founders of Tinder, who left the company, decided to create their own app and used the same mechanism of swiping aside. But the court agreed with Tinder because it was the functionality protected as an industrial design.

Protecting the elements of a mobile app

A mobile app is not limited to code, interface, design. A mobile app always consists of many elements that are subject to protection. For example, if a character from a mobile app has become recognizable, it can become a separate subject of copyright. However, the idea of a mobile app is never subject to protection; copyright only protects the form in which the idea is expressed.

A mobile app created by an employee

If the mobile application is created as part of the performance of functions under an employment contract, the copyright belongs to the developer. The exclusive right - the property right to benefit from and dispose of the application - belongs to the employer. The parties can set other consequences in a civil law contract or an employment contract.

What rights does the customer of the mobile app have?

As a rule, the mobile application is created for sale in the future. In this case, the contract may stipulate that the exclusive right is transferred to the customer, although the non-property copyrights still belong to the contractor. You can read more about selling mobile apps in our article "How to sell a mobile app".

The question of proving mobile app copying

The core of a mobile app is source code, i.e. written by humans and not compiled by programs. Comparing two source codes in court can be extremely difficult. The applications may be similar, but the source codes will differ. Or the court may demand the machine code from the person who copied the app. It means that machine code will be transformed to source code and it will be different from the original one. So evidentiary issues can be extremely complicated, even if you deposit your application in the beginning. You also need to keep in mind situations where code is written using ready-made modules. They are usually covered by open source licenses that allow their use, but with some conditions that you also need to take into account.

Even at the stage of creating a mobile application, you need to take care of its protection. You can deposit the app with the Russian PTO, but in any case, this will not avoid the difficulties of procedural proof. You can protect the source code itself, but the interface can only be protected if it is original enough, and the idea is never subject to protection. If you have any questions or need help with protecting your application, contact the lawyers of A4 Law Firm.