software licensing business
Is it possible to start a business with a partner and have the rigths for the software that i wrote?
<p>So I have partnered with a guy that had an idea, but cannot write code, that's where I came in the picture.</p>
<p>He worked 7 years in the industry that were are trying to break into and knows the requirements for the software to meet the needs of this said industry. We are almost in the final phase of the alpha version and then we will make the company for it.</p>
<p>We will both have 50% share in it. Is it possible so that I own the source code? He wants the company to own it that we will make, but I feel like then, I can maybe be eliminated from the picture later on, an my only card is that I wrote the whole software and every part of it. Of course I can't start the company without him because I don't know said industry that well, so that would fail miserably. But neither he because he doesn't have the source code.</p>
<p>What possible solutions exist to this so we are both defended (I can't backstab him and sell the software later and he can't eliminate me and use it as his own) and I still own the source code?</p>
<p>If it is possible at all.</p>

<p>You can negotiate an agreement with the partnership that transfers the copyright to you as a person and then exclusively license it back to the partnership for a nominal fee.</p>
<p>If the license were revocable by you under some trigger condition you might achieve your goal.</p>
<p>What incentive your partner would need to agree to this is another matter.</p>

<p>Since you have no company yet, and no contract yet, right now the copyright to your software is yours.</p>
<p>When you start the company, each side should put something on the table. You have an alpha version of the software, that has considerable value. What value does the other person bring in? &quot;An idea&quot; has a value of approximately 0.1 pennies or $0.001.</p>
