Before you begin selling your App or Dapp directly or through Google Play and Apple App Store, here is a short checklist of important legal considerations.
- Do you have the proper entity set up for your company? Read our post on S corp vs. LLC for active business.
- Have you consulted with an accountant or CPA to minimize taxes in the event you have a windfall from sale of your App.
- If you have partners in the company, do you have a founders, shareholders or operating agreement (LLC) in place?
- Is the name of your App legally available and not infringing? Have you done name/trademark search and due diligence?
- Have you trademarked the name of your App and any logo?
- Do you have Terms of Service/Use/End User Licensing Agreement (EULA)? These should address user rights and obligations, limit your liability, protect your intellectual property, acceptable user conduct and banning users, as well as legal provisions addressing liability disclaimers, dispute resolution, applicable law, class action limitations, etc.
- Do you have an adequate Privacy Policy? This notifies users about the type of information you may collect, how you will use it, if you will share with any 3rd parties, and allow you to transfer on sale of the app or business.
- Do you have an Infringement Policy (either as part of Terms of Service or separate)? Under DMCA’s Safe Harbor provisions this protects you from copyright infringement claims based on user generated content. Make sure you designate a registered agent with the US Copyright Office before December 31, 2017, if you have not.
- Have you ensured compliance integrating with third party services?
- Have you read and do you understand your rights and obligations listing your App with Google Play or the App Store?
- Do you have Independent Contractor agreements with any developers or contributors that legally transfers all rights in intellectual property to your company?
- Have you provided proper attribution/credit/source code for any open source software or code used?
- Have you established bill users via PayPal, Stripe, or other payment provider?
Please sign up for my free newsletter if you want more detailed explanations of these and other legal issues effecting your business. Just drop me an email me if you have any questions or topics you would like me to address in future posts.
Until then, Keep it Legit!
Bob