Illumin Blog

Precious Assets and Costly Mistakes

Most of us will spend a lot of time on such things as website design and content, newsletters or blogging to build our online presence, yet tend to ignore or overlook the critical safeguards that can protect all our hard work, Intellectual Property and business.

Internet and eCommerce attorneys, Natalie Sulimani, Esq. and Deena Burgess, Esq. can help you avoid costly mistakes and help you protect your precious assets.

Setting the Record Straight

Natalie Sulimani of Sulimani Law Firm focuses on eCommerce for small businesses. She sets us straight with myth vs. fact about content on the internet.
 
Myth: putting things on the internet automatically makes it public domain.
 
Myth Buster: IP law is a little bit more complex than that, so no, you're not giving it away, but you're not entirely protected either.
 
Here are the 4 actions you should take to protect yourself, your business, and your profits online:

• Sign a web development agreement with the person or company designing your site.  Make sure, legally, that if you leave your web developer, you are not leaving your website and code behind.
• Copyright your website, newsletter and blog.  It's a small investment (and I mean small) to protect your IP and prevent infringement.
• Trademark your logo and name.  Yes, you might be working with a common law trademark, but do you want to take a pause in your marketing to clear up any legal issues?
• Draft well thought out website policies specific to your business including Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policies, linking agreements and forwarding policies.

It's critical to continually monitor your IP.  There is software available that crawls the web to see if anyone has copied your material - the most basic choice is Google Alerts.  Every morning I get a listing of where my IP is around the web.  If something doesn't look right, call your IP attorney!"

Internet Ignorance Can Cost You

Deena Burgess, Esq. an Internet and IP attorney of the Law Offices of Deena B. Burgess tell us that, "Many companies believe that they can just throw together a website and are ready to go. It's just not that easy. Companies often overlook the variety of laws relating to websites and, in doing so, devalue one of their greatest assets.

Three of the most common mistakes that service oriented businesses make with their websites are:

          1. Collecting personally identifiable information without a privacy policy (or without an adequate privacy policy) - Many
           businesses put a form on their website to collect visitor information so they can send emails, newsletters, offers and other
           communications.  But did you know that, if you have anyone from California visit your website, you're legally required to have a
           privacy policy?  And if you're using a third party advertiser (like Google AdSense) on your site, they too have certain requirements
           that must be included in your privacy policy. 

          Another reason why you care is that if you ever intend to sell your business, your mailing list (particularly in a service business) is
          a HUGE asset.  If you collect personally identifiable information and you don't collect it under a privacy policy, that list is completely
          valueless.  

          2. Failing to adequately protect their trademarks - Although a common law trademark exists from the time you begin using your
          brand name "in commerce", that protection only exists in the narrow geographic location in which you currently use it.  If you want
          to protect your mark nationally, your best bet is to register it with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Finally, there are
          rights that are available for federally registered trademarks that aren't available to common law marks. Make sure you know what
          they are.

          (For more information on why the heck you'd want to register your trademark, check out Deena's free e-book on the topic at
          http://www.why-the-heck.com.)

          3. Not having adequate disclaimers on their websites - Particularly in businesses that give specific information about financial
          and business results or testimonials from clients, it is vital to have appropriate legal disclaimers talking about that results are not
          typical and that you do not guarantee similar results."