Selling Software That Uses MS Excel

[Bonitoa]

I am not a techy nor a business head. What I have done is put together a
whole bunch of software applications that I find useful and I think could be
of interest to the public ... customers may be willing to pay for them! The
apps are based on Excel.

My question is how do I go about selling this kind of application? Does MS
take a cut of the price/profits?

Any help appreciated.

 

[Harlan Grove]

I am not a techy nor a business head. What I have done is put together a
whole bunch of software applications that I find useful and I think could be
of interest to the public ...   customers may be willing to pay for them! The
apps are based on Excel.

My question is how do I go about selling this kind of application? Does MS
take a cut of the price/profits?

First advice would be to read your Excel or Office license agreement.
I think you'll find that it doesn't mention anything about selling
Excel workbooks containing content you (or any other Excel/Office
licensee) creates. Meaning Microsoft wouldn't be entitled to a cut.
That said, safer to pay a lawyer to check this for you.

Second, there's no way to securely protect IP in Excel workbooks. File-
open passwords are robust, but your potential customers couldn't use
your workbooks unless they know those passwords. OTOH, *ALL* internal
passwords are *EASILY* broken or bypassed. If you're OK with this,
then no problem distributing software in the form of .XLS or .XLA
files. But if that is a problem for you, there's no alternative to
using different types of files to distribute the same functionality,
e.g., .XLL files (usually compiled C code that makes use of Excel's C
API).

Third, this is definitely NOT the best newsgroup for this sort of
question. Far better to ask questions like this in
microsoft.public.excel.programming .

 

[JoAnn Paules]

But you do have to be careful with any images in the documentation.
Microsoft has no sense of humor about some things.

I would suggest you call Microsoft instead of asking people who are no
employed by Microsoft and are not lawyers.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]
Tech Editor for "Microsoft Publisher 2007 For Dummies"

I am not a techy nor a business head. What I have done is put together a
whole bunch of software applications that I find useful and I think could
be
of interest to the public ... customers may be willing to pay for them! The
apps are based on Excel.

My question is how do I go about selling this kind of application? Does MS
take a cut of the price/profits?

First advice would be to read your Excel or Office license agreement.
I think you'll find that it doesn't mention anything about selling
Excel workbooks containing content you (or any other Excel/Office
licensee) creates. Meaning Microsoft wouldn't be entitled to a cut.
That said, safer to pay a lawyer to check this for you.

Second, there's no way to securely protect IP in Excel workbooks. File-
open passwords are robust, but your potential customers couldn't use
your workbooks unless they know those passwords. OTOH, *ALL* internal
passwords are *EASILY* broken or bypassed. If you're OK with this,
then no problem distributing software in the form of .XLS or .XLA
files. But if that is a problem for you, there's no alternative to
using different types of files to distribute the same functionality,
e.g., .XLL files (usually compiled C code that makes use of Excel's C
API).

Third, this is definitely NOT the best newsgroup for this sort of
question. Far better to ask questions like this in
microsoft.public.excel.programming .

 

[Harlan Grove]

I would suggest you call Microsoft instead of asking people who are no
employed by Microsoft and are not lawyers.

....

And good luck getting an answer calling the support lines. Do the nice
people in India who answer the support lines have US or EU copyright
laws and Microsoft's interpretation of them in their support
databases?

Anyway, Microsoft employees would likely interpret Microsoft's IP more
broadly than what's strictly legally enforceable, so the OP would be
best off hiring his/her own lawyer to get a definitive answer from
someone who could be found legally liable if mistaken in those
answers. Either way, the OP wants an answer in writing, so phone calls
just won't cut it.