Sample Developer Agreement

[kathleenceo]

Does anyone have a good developer agreement that they would be willing to share? If so, please email me kathleengilroy@me.com.

Thanks.

[ayasin]

Is it a fixed bid project/hourly/profit share? Who owns the IP at the end? Different answers to these lead to very different agreements.

[kathleenceo]

This is an agreement where the developer will get a perpetual royalty based on a percentage of net income. All IP will be owned by the "publisher."

[ayasin]

Those are actually fairly complex and don't fit well in a stock blanket agreement. Your best bet is to come to an agreement on the exact terms, then spend a couple of hundred dollars having a lawyer write it up in legalese.

[kathleenceo]

ok. thanks for your input.

[ayasin]

Originally Posted by kathleenceo

ok. thanks for your input.

No prob. Here are a few things to consider:

- What rights does the dev have to inspect your books (to ensure they are getting properly paid)?
- What rights does the dev have if you use the code in a different app?
- What rights do successors have?
- What happens if you sell your company?

(these are also some of the reasons why stock agreements don't work in these cases)

[icombat]

I would check out Docstoc - they tend to have really good templates for these things. My advice if you are looking to save money is find something along these lines on Docstoc then have a lawyer add to that document - will be much cheaper than drafting from scratch. I am keeping a blog on my process hiring with a developer and I created a list of contractual and legal tips here. In my case though it was a straight pay for product agreement so not as complex. Good luck!