I have a unique idea for a program (not a game) which I have researched and found that it has not been done yet. Before I hire a team to work on it I want to secure the rights to it so that people inquiring about the project will not be free to develop it on their own and leave me out of the deal. I do not have a lot of money so I was wondering what the cheapest solution is, that would hold up legally. Taking an outline and having it notarized perhaps? I am clueless about what to do here.

Non-disclosure agreement. Get one drawn up before you hire out any subcontractors or employees, or demo your game. Have them sign it before coming aboard/seeing your design specs.

May not be iron-clad but it''ll offer you some protection (and legal recourse) if someone you show your design to turns around and does it on their own.

You can''t really secure the rights to your idea, only the way the idea is implemented.

For example, if your idea is to make CD-Rom drives spit out Pancakes, you can''t really do anything to legally own CD-Rom drives making Pancakes. If however, your method uses a CD-Rom to Pancake converter which you develop, the converter can be owned and patented by you.

But anyone can come up with a way to make CD-Rom drives make Pancakes and implement it.