| Staking
Out Intellectual Property Rights By Ted Hughes,
Senior Correspondent
LocalBusiness.com Business Profile, July 19, 2000
Software escrow is
one of those terms. It's right up there with
double indemnity and term life. They all have a
vaguely tomb-like quality to them.
If you're not in
just the right frame of mind when you hear it,
you'll feel the air in the room go thick on you.
As your own indifference engulfs you, the guy
who's telling you about software escrow will
recede into the wrong end of the telescope.
Jim Ford swims
daily in the choppy waters of that sea of
indifference. But, really, once he manages to get
your attention, software escrow gets interesting.
Really.
Ford explains that
even he was pretty baffled by the term the first
time he heard it.
"I got an
e-mail from a friend in Bryan who's an attorney,
asking if I knew anything about software escrow.
One of their lawyer's needed it for a client. I
said I'd check into it."
Ford ran every
trap he knew, but came up dry.
"After 15
years of legal and technical publishing in the
Silicon Hills of Austin I'd never heard of
this," he recalls. "I thought nobody
here is doing this? It hit me like a lightning
bolt."
The lightning bolt
was Ford's new business idea, and that has
evolved into his company, Guard-IT Corp.
What Ford has
learned since he began to explore software escrow
-- basically title insurance for geeks -- is that
it is a rather useful tool.
Guard-IT Corp.
simply acts as a trusted third party with whom a
software maker, or anyone with intellectual
property, can store the IP. Doing that
establishes legal ownership. If a developer has
investors, it's also a good way for them to
secure the assets they're investing in. All this
of course is supposed to minimize legal disputes
should the deal go sour.
"It doesn't
replace a patent," Ford says, "but if
you're not going to spend the time and money to
pursue a patent, go ahead and put it into escrow,
because you're going to get IP protection right
away."
It also is a
useful way for developers who are new to the
business to establish credibility with potential
business partners and customers, Ford says.
"When they're
in the first or second year of operation,"
Ford says, "a developer may have his product
all developed and he's going out to sell it. It's
going to hit him in the face. The first guy
that's bigger is going to say: 'yeah, I love your
product. You're a nice guy. But we really don't
know you from Adam, and we need some assurance
that our investment in your product will be
covered.'"
Software escrow,
Ford says, might sound like a velvet-lined tomb,
but it's really just another way to protect your
intellectual property. Really.
Company
Name: Guard-IT Corporation
Industry:
Intellectual property protection, software
escrow, source code escrow
Product/Service:
Guard-IT is an independent, third-party escrow
company that secures intellectual property (IP),
including software source code, proprietary
material (e.g., databases, business plans). The
escrow agreement authenticates the developer's
ownership and first-use, and protects the
beneficiary's investment in the intellectual
property.
Year
Founded: 1999
Management:
Founder and CEO Jim Ford managed a number of
technology, business and legal publications in
print and online, including at the Austin
Daily Record and the Austin
American-Statesman.
Investors:
Self-funded
Strategic
Partners: Guard-IT has signed an
agreement with PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP,
naming the software and intellectual property
escrow company as a seat-holder in connection
with PwC's Intellectual Property Exchanges
("IPEX"). Guard-IT also has a marketing
alliance with Associates Business Services, a
member of the 900-member International Business
Brokers Association. The company is also in
confidential negotiations with a major online B2B
marketplace and a computer hardware manufacturer.
Customers:
Representative technology development clients
include Dark Horse Systems, Semantic Designs and
Innovative Software Solutions. Beneficiaries
include Micron Technology, Rockwell Software and
Landata Systems, a subsidiary of Stewart Title
Company.
Competitors:
DSI, Ft. Knox, Iron Mountain
Fiscal
Year Revenues/Profit: Would not
disclose.
Strategy:
Cut the "paper chase" for software
developers by offering an online form to expedite
their escrow. Cut out the fees and paperwork of
enrolling and administering beneficiaries for the
developer. The goal is to serve an intellectual
property market that goes well beyond software
source code. Form alliances to broaden protection
for buyers and sellers of technology and
intellectual property.
What Keeps
Them Awake at Night: The numerous
applications and opportunities for rapid growth
in both domestic and foreign markets. The whole
technology industry, even the general business
community, is beginning to focus on the need to
protect intellectual property rights and secure
investments in technology and innovation.
Third-party escrow will be to technology transfer
what title insurance is to the mortgage industry.
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Copyright
1999-2012 Guard-IT Corp. All rights reserved.
Page updated 01.02.2012.
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