New Excel development

[ledgreg]

I am in the process of developing an Excel based application which
plan on selling to businesses. Does anyone know if I need to registe
with microsoft since I am developing my application in Excel? All m
customers will need to have Excel to use my application. I woul
really prefer a web address at microsoft that I could print out statin
what the requirements are.

Secondly, does anyone know if there are simple ways to protect my Exce
application from being copied by one of my customers and given to one o
their friends?

Lastly, would I just need a copyright for this application or would
need a patent as well?

Thanks for your help and take care

 

[Harald Staff]

No, you don't have to pay Microsoft anything.
No, there's no easy way to protect your work.
Copyright is complicated, but rules are pretty much the same all over the
world. I doubt that an Excel app would qualify for a patent, but please try.

HTH. Best wishes Harald

 

[Nick Hodge]

Adding to Harald's reply, to better protect your code, you could develop it
in .NET using VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office). This runs as managed
code under the .NET framework with all the inherent security that brings

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
www.nickhodge.co.uk
(e-mail address removed)