# Selling VBA Applications - protecting your work



## joejoejoe1 (May 12, 2006)

Hello, 

I had a idea for a 'commercial application' - that is, one that I'd like to sell and charge people for.  I would like to implement it using Excel VBA, because this interface would make the most sense for what the product needs to accomplish.

I was wondering if anyone has ever had a similar thought, and was curious to what extent you can 'patent, copyright' etc. an Excel Application.  I really don't know where to start, and would appreciate anyone's thoughts on the subject.  There's the topic of both code and functionality to address.

Assuming I found a niche product that solved a real problem, I would think it's very easy for anyone - for example, a big software company, to simply copy the idea, patent it and forget about me.  After all, I think Excel is a real ripoff of Lotus 123, and no one has really presented to me a convincing argument why Excel isn't a patent infringement on Excel - so maybe I really don't get it.

Of course, I'm sure there's lots of other companies that could afford to prove I've copied their idea - and I'm not so sure I could afford to argue with the deep pockets companies have to pay their lawyers. 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.  Any url's or links are much appreciated.


----------



## atmospheric (May 12, 2006)

Here's a start:

http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?t=204270&highlight=copyright

HTH


----------



## joejoejoe1 (May 18, 2006)

HTH,

Like your little quote - laughed out loud when I read it.

The links you gave were a nice start, but more 'protection' oriented.  I'm looking more for whether you can really protect a 'design' that's implemented in VBA in Excel - for example from a company that rewrites it in C++ w/their own GUI, and makes minimal changes to the interface to make it 'their' copyright, etc.

I realize it's a complicated question, and I'll bet it goes on all the time.  Probably, most people sell their consulting services together with their programs - at least then you're sealing in some of the profit/credit you should get.  But to distribute it as a stand-alone piece of software application - this is probably a risky endeavor if you really have an idea that can take off (and I realize many dreamers are currently thinking they have that idea right at this moment - but have never taken the steps to try and bring it to the next level.")


----------



## katphish (Jun 25, 2006)

*protecing Excel app*

Your question is better answered by a patent attorney but from what I know about patents and copyrights, you wouldn't have any basis to patent what you wrote. Plus patents don't protect you at all, all they do is give you the legal right to sue someone who you know has violated your patent (and it's up to you find that person and prove that they violated it). Just having patent doesn't prevent anyone from stealing your design, it just gives you the legal right to sue. I've written a few patents so I know this and it's very misleading to call it "patent protection" when in reality there is no protection until you sue and WIN (which means big $$$ for lawyers).

The hard part is finding people who have violated your patent. How can you do that? You can spend hours each day searching online for products similar to yours and then figuring out if they used yours to create theirs. It's a crazy business.

Deb


----------

