A Website Development Contract is an agreement under which a developer agrees to create one or more websites or web applications for a company. It narrows down the scope of the services that the developer shall or intends to provide to the company. It enumerates the project timetable, the deliverables, the terms of payment, assignment of IPR, the terms of termination etc.

Why Do You Need A Website Development Contract?

Websites improve the presence of a business in this vast ocean i.e. the World Wide Web. Websites are the windows to the online world. Therefore, in this world run by dot coms, it becomes essential that you have an agreement that protects you from getting embroiled in legal fiascos. A well drafted, legally sound agreement is imperative for a bump free ride while you scale up the success ladder.

What Are The Prerequisites Of A Good Website Development Contract?

A good website development contract should have the following:

Scope of Services
A web development contract needs to specify in explicit terms as to what will be developed and how. It should give a preview of the services that has to be performed, which in turn, gives a clearer picture of the complete project requirements so that both parties to the agreement are in consensus with each other.

This will also address questions like: will the developer be obligated to meet a specific timetable and completion date? Will there be a scope for flexibility in case of unforeseen events?

Indemnification
This clause distributes responsibilities between the parties, in case any problem arises in the future. It serves to protect both the parties to the agreement from any repercussions that either of them would face owing to the other’s negligence.

Assignment
Right to assign contract to someone else, the party (developer) to the agreement reserves the right to assign subcontractors in this Web development project if required, for the effective completion of the work undertaken as per the agreement.

Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure
This clause includes information, be it oral, electronic, written or any other medium that client considers confidential, for eg: business operations, customers, etc. The parties shall not disclose, publish or otherwise disseminate information that is confidential to anyone other than people so specified. This clause also enumerates that each party shall take reasonable precautions and due care to prevent any disclosure, publication, or dissemination of Confidential Information, unless so specified.

Force Majeure
This is an agreement where parties agree that neither of them shall be held responsible or liable for any form of delay or failure in the performance of obligations, provided that such delay or failure arises from the occurrence of events which are beyond the reasonable and due control of such party. It should be an event which no matter what could not have been prevented by the exercise of due care and something which was unforeseen at the time of entering into this Agreement, such as fire, natural calamities which are beyond the control of a human being, war, etc.

Terms of Payment
It is always advisable that the parties to the agreement have a clear cut payment scheme, stated in the agreement itself, and they should decide whether the developer would be paid per job basis or hourly basis. It should include terms like whether the developer would have the right to remove what he has developed, if he is not paid within a period of 30 days.

Warranties
This states whether the developer will give warranties that the website will not infringe others’ intellectual properties. This will also answer questions like whether guarantees will be given as to the functioning of the site or presence of defects are concerned. It will also mention who will be responsible for ensuring that the site complies with the laws of the land.

Limited Liability
By way of this clause, the client agrees that the material for publication will not contain anything that leads to unethical use of service and as is generally noted in web development agreements all abusive and unethical materials are stated to include, pornography, obscenity, nudity, violations of privacy, computer viruses, any illegal activity, etc. but is not solely limited to these.

And it shall also indemnify the developer from any liability or harm, if the Client publishes unethical content, this clause even bars the developer from posting unethical content.

Termination
Certain events will cause the agreement to come to end before the services have been completed. Either party to the agreement can terminate the agreement upon written notice to the other party, or if the other party commits some material breach and doesn’t fix it. It should also be laid down that after termination, services rendered by the developer should be paid for and that the developer must provide to the Company website deliverables.

Term
This indicates that the agreement will last as long as it takes to complete the services or till whenever the parties agree to terminate it.

Dispute Settlement
The agreement should clearly specify the mode of settlement of dispute, whether it would be settled by way of arbitration or in case the arbitration proceedings fail, then which Court would have the jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the matter.

Delays
This elucidates that work will be completed in a professional, competent and timely manner and also mentions the repercussions in case of failure to timely comply with the deadlines.

Intellectual Property Rights
This will decide how the issues related to Intellectual property will be resolved, whether these rights will be assigned to the customer and also the conditions regarding third party rights.

How Does LegalDesk Come To Your Rescue?

Properly drafted contract or agreement terms are the norm, and just in case you have any intention to be adventurous and go ahead with a template sourced from all the websites in the world then you also need to be ready to face the music.

We, at LegalDesk, provide ready-to-use templates for contracts and plenty of other legal documents. All our templates are lawyer-verified. Our templates can be customised to suit your requirements, if any, you can contact our support team to know more.

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In case you prefer to draft your own contract, you can still avail our Print ‘n’ Deliver service, in which we print the document uploaded by you on Stamp paper and deliver to your the location of your choice. At LegalDesk, you can also find ready to use formats of online legal documents, which can be used as and when you need.