Intellectual Property

Protecting the intellectual property of a software vendor

For a SaaS company, intellectual property is not an abstract concern. It is the foundation on which the business’s value rests: the product name, the source code, the user interface, the visual design, the technical documentation. Each of these assets can be protected — but none is protected adequately by default.

Your trademark: the first asset to secure

Your software’s name is often the first thing clients remember. If that name is not filed as a trademark, anyone can use it — or worse, file it before you do.

Trademark filing is handled by the INPI for France (Articles L.711-1 ff. of the French Intellectual Property Code) or the EUIPO for protection across the European Union. The choice between a French and an EU mark depends on your market: if your clients are exclusively in France, an INPI filing is sufficient. As soon as you sell your SaaS in other EU countries, an EU mark is usually more cost-effective than a series of national filings.

The mistakes I see most often at this stage: choosing a mark that is too descriptive (a sign that merely describes what the software does will be refused registration), targeting the wrong goods-and-services classes (the Nice Classification has 45 classes — you need to select only those that match your actual business), or skipping the prior-rights search and discovering after filing that a third party already holds a similar mark.

I have put together a practical trademark filing guide that covers these questions step by step.

Source code, interfaces and design

A software’s source code is protected by copyright from the moment it is created, provided it is original (Article L.112-2 of the French Intellectual Property Code). You do not need to register it to benefit from this protection. However, in a dispute you will need to prove authorship and the date of creation. That is why I systematically recommend a probative deposit — for example with the Agence pour la Protection des Programmes (APP) or via a digital Soleau envelope.

User interfaces and visual design can also be protected by copyright (if they are original).

If you use open-source components in your product, caution is warranted. Open-source licences are not all alike: some (such as the GPL) require you to distribute your own code under the same licence, which can be incompatible with a proprietary SaaS model. Others (MIT, Apache 2.0) are more permissive but still carry obligations you need to respect.

Monitoring and enforcing your rights

Filing a trademark is not enough. You also need to monitor it. Hundreds of new marks are filed at the INPI and EUIPO every month. If a third party files a sign that is too close to yours, you have two months from publication to file an opposition. After that deadline, enforcement becomes more complex and expensive.

I offer my clients monthly monitoring of new filings, paired with a risk assessment. When an opposition is necessary, I prepare and argue it before the INPI or EUIPO. In cases of clear-cut infringement — a competitor copying your name, your interface or your content — the first step is usually a cease-and-desist letter, before considering court proceedings if needed.