To what extent have you taken legal measures to protect your independent business? Did you order these from a layer? In what order and at which point in did you get any of these (before first release, after first legal trouble)?

- Web site disclaimer
- Product lisence agreement
- NDA contracts for partners
- NDA/subcontractor contract
- Trademarking company name or product names

Anything else?

I am at the point of trying to figure out what would be cost effective and safe.

I'm not a lawyer, but here's my two cents' worth:

NDAs: NDAs are pretty standard stuff, so you can probably find a boilerplate NDA on the net somewhere for free. If you're going to be working with contractors and other third parties (including publishers), this is a must.

Web Site Disclaimers: Like NDAs, you can probably find one that suits your needs on the net somewhere. No one copyrights the text of disclaimers, so just copy someone else's.

Trademarks: If you're pretty sure you're going to make money, trademarking your company name, logo and product name(s) is a very sensible step to take. Do it before the names you want to trademark become diluted. If you're certain you're going to make money, do it now. :)

Licensing Agreements: I assume you're talking about end-user licensing agreements (EULAs). This is one area where you might want to consult a lawyer. While there are plenty of boilerplate EULAs out there, they vary depending on the kind of software you're making. Even games have differing EULAs, depending on whether they have plug-ins, level editors, etc., which the end user can create or use to create their own expansions to the game. Or, look at the EULAs of games that are like yours and adapt it to your needs. Like disclaimers, no one copyrights EULAs (just be sure to change the company name to yours.:) )