Join and benefit from all the services of the APP

… including 24×7 direct access to the online platform to quickly and easily upload your digital creations, manage your contracts and your creative portfolio.

Filing with the APP allows you to register a digital creation by registering it in the international IDDN register, of which the APP is the exclusive depositary, to give it a certain date and to archive a copy, sealed or encrypted, at the APP. The APP acts as a trusted third party. The APP application is mainly intended for professional digital creations (software, mobile applications, databases, websites, etc.).

Our deposit solutions

With 35 years of legal and technological expertise in the digital repository, the APP has developed a unique and unrivaled technical platform allowing its Members to make deposits, manage their deposited digital asset portfolio and to consult their history at any time. As a trusted third party, the APP manages the sequestration (preservation) of your deposits in an integrated and sustainable way.

Our software platform InterDeposit Web processes all types and sizes of content. 

InterDeposit Web

The deposit software platform is accessible online from your Member Account, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.The cost of licensing this service is included in your annual fee.

Two deposit methods are available from your Member Account :

Digital deposit

  • For contents <to 10GB
  • Digital sealing (via encrypted tunnel)
  • Data stored in France
  • Dematerialized certificate and accessible online
  • Access via the Member Area 7/7, 24 hours a day
  • Simplified and intuitive form

Physical deposit

  • Without size limit
  • Physical sealing under sealed envelopes (Logibox)
  • Data stored in France
  • Edition of a certificate of paper deposit
  • Any type of media accepted
  • Personalized follow-up of the request

If you do not want to activate your Member Account, find our pdf forms here .

Compliance with the most demanding safety standards

Our platform complies with the most stringent security standards such as the General Security Regulations (GSR) aimed in particular at managing the confidentiality and integrity of keys or the compliance of authentication mechanisms.

Why deposit?

Copyright protects your digital creations.However, in case of dispute of your rights or counterfeiting, the difficulty will be to prove it.The digital work is by nature complex, composite and very evolutionary.Litigation can be traced back to several years of generative events.It is difficult to “rewrite history” with certainty in front of the judicial authority because it is necessary that the elements of the time are preserved without any possibility of later manipulation and dated with certainty.

Contrary to popular belief, software alone cannot be patented in Europe. Therefore, filing to the APP is an essential step to protect your digital creations. It allows you to pre-build proof of your rights.

In addition, certain immaterial assets not protected by copyright (know-how, laboratory notebooks, algorithms, sales methods, etc.) are strategic and you must take steps to protect business secrecy , both in terms of protection in the broad sense (legal and technical) than traceability.

Depositing your digital creations also allows you to capitalize on a history allowing you to develop a real probationary policy over time. Regular deposits allow you to trace the evolution of your digital creations portfolio and thus contribute to the valuation of your intangible assets.

Thus, the deposit meets probative, patrimonial, organizational and commercial objectives with escrow services.

We talk about filing when content and metadata (descriptive elements of the deposited content, timestamp, etc.) are archived at a third party escrow. The APP therefore acts as a third party receiver.

The APP does not have access to the content deposited. Deposits on physical media (CD, DVD, USB key, etc.) are sealed by the APP. Digital repositories are encrypted and stored electronically in accordance with the requirements of standard NZ42-013. Archiving, whether physical or electronic, is carried out in France. The confidentiality of your content is respected throughout the deposit process.

The APA also offers “advanced” deposits that allow, depending on the chosen option, a more or less thorough examination by an agent of the APP of the items you want to file.

The 5 good reasons to drop:

  1. pre-establish proof of the authorship of your digital creation and benefit from a presumption of ownership ;
  2. give a certain date to your rights: demonstrate that you have precedence over your digital creations;
  3. map your digital heritage : materialize your digital creations and their evolution by filing trees (IDDN sectors) and thus contribute to its valuation ;
  4. reassure your customers by giving them access to your creations in the event of a failure, while protecting your technology (by subscribing to our optional escrow services);
  5. prove that you are taking steps to protect business secrecy.

It is not necessary to wait until your creation is completed to deposit it.

With the chain principle, you can make the deposit at the beginning of your creation or start with the version of your choice and deposit the following versions via the so-called update deposit.

Thus, the successive versions will be linked to your initial deposit and you will materialize the evolution of your creation within the same IDDN chain, nomenclature of which the APP is the exclusive depositary.

You will thus be able to trace all the versions of your digital work and you will be able to do so for each of your creations.

By depositing regularly at the APP, you initiate a long-term relationship to protect your intangible assets at each stage of their evolution and increase the probative value of your deposits by matching them to the evolution cycle of your innovations.

The life of the deposit

In addition to pre-constituting the proof of your rights, the APP also traces in time the evolution of certain agreements on your innovations, including escrow but also the possible evolution of the ownership of rights.

We record the possible co-ownership of rights that you declare to us, as well as their evolutions.The co-holders are mentioned on the certificate of deposit at the APP and have rights to information about the deposits you have made on their behalf.

It is also necessary for you to inform us of each change of rights holder, following a merger, transfer of activity or a technology transfer agreement, for example.This will result in a transfer of rights to the APP to transfer ownership of all or part of your deposits to the transferee.

These steps are important because we remind you that the rights to information about your deposits and the possible access to them are very strictly regulated to protect confidentiality and business secrecy.

To request a transfer of rights, please contact us at legal@app.asso.fr .

Advanced deposits

The APP offers 2 types of advanced deposit: the verified physical deposit and the controlled deposit .

Advanced deposits allow, depending on the chosen option, a more or less thorough examination by an agent of the APP of the items you want to submit.The verified repository can be used for any type of digital creation and the controlled repository is specifically dedicated to software works.

In most cases, these types of deposits are made under escrow agreements.

The verified physical deposit

  • For all types of works
  • Detailed review of media (CDs, DVDs, keys and USB hard drives, etc.) by a sworn agent of the APP:
    • checking the presence of structured and identical content on each media received;
    • calculation of the individual electronic fingerprints of the files present on the supports.
  • Registration of the work at the APP
  • Put in sealed envelopes supports (Logibox)
  • Edition of a certificate of deposit
  • Recording (physical) of seals in France
  • Drafting of a verified deposit report recording the operations carried out with in annex, on CD, the list of the deposited files

The benefits of the verified deposit

While guaranteeing the non-alteration of the elements to be deposited, this advanced procedure makes it possible to make sure that the three supports provided by the Member for the recording of his creation contain readable data and that these are in the form a clear and structured tree.

It also helps to reassure:

  • a Member with regard to the content of the delivered media and offers him the possibility of availing himself of the repot of deposit verified with his commercial partners;
  • a customer on the elements deposited and on the exploitability of the media in case of contract with access clause (license agreement, escrow agreement, etc.).

The controlled deposit

  • Specifically dedicated to software works
  • Contradictory examination of the constituent elements of the work performed by a sworn agent of the APP in the presence of the Member and a specific client:
    • compilation of sources;
    • installation of the generated binaries;
    • verification of the work according to a schedule of conditions previously established by the parties.
  • Registration of the work at the APP
  • Put in sealed envelopes supports (Logibox)
  • Edition of a certificate of deposit
  • Recording (physical) of seals in France
  • Drafting of a controlled deposit report recording the operations carried out

The benefits of the controlled Deposit

This advanced procedure allows, at least, to perform a consistency check and exploitability elements to be deposited from a virgin or virtualized environment.In addition, it makes it possible to verify that the work is sufficiently documented and to ensure that these elements constitute a coherent operational set.However, it is not a question of carrying out a control of conformity, nor a control of durability of the work.

Controlled deposit is often used in contracts with an access clause to the deposited items (license agreement, escrow agreement, etc.) because it guarantees the beneficiary, in the event of the supplier’s failure, access to functional elements allowing in particular to ensure the continuity of its activity.

This service is also appreciated in procedures such as: transfer, merger or acquisition of a company, transfer of software, etc.

All software creations do not lend themselves to this type of deposit, our sworn agents are at your disposal to inquire about the type of deposit that best suits your needs.

Need to be accompanied?

Do not hesitate to contact us for any need of accompaniment in your steps.