Now in our second decade in the business, we still receive calls from companies in all industries (retail, medical, government, energy, finance, etc.) who “have never had to deal with software escrow” before, but suddenly it’s an issue. The failures of many old and well established firms in the past few years have forced everyone to seek extra security.
When it comes to protecting your technology assets, escrow makes great business sense.
No other vehicle or system simultaneously
1) Gives the developer third-party authentication of his/her intellectual property by contract and 2) Secures the licensee’s (“beneficiary’s”) interest or investment in the technology, while actually preserving the technology or intellectual property.
How’s that for efficiency?
And when some software escrow agreements are just a half-dozen pages plus a few exhibits (see our Single-User or Multi-User samples), software escrow becomes much less daunting. While it might have been a complicated matter years ago, setting up a software escrow agreement today is really pretty easy.
In 2002, we created our Client Tools area to help those with little or no knowledge about software escrow set up and maintain software escrow accounts. At the Escrow Setup page, all you need is some basic contact information about the depositor and the beneficiary and some info about the software product. Submitting this form sends the info to Guard-IT, where a soft copy of your draft agreement in MS Word format is prepared and then e-mailed back to you usually on the same business day.
After reviewing and editing the draft, if necessary, return a signed copy by mail or PDF to us. While this can take some time, especially if negotiating release conditions or other points with a client, the remaining escrow steps are “downhill” once the signatures are obtained.
