Checklist for Trademark and Copyright Issues on Your Website
The following is a checklist of issues and questions for protecting your online presence for your business, from the standpoint of trademarks and copyrights. We will be updating this as our tweetchat event (#smbchat) progresses.
Introductory reading
- Basic intellectual property terminology — the difference between copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property
- Introduction to trademarks
- Introduction to copyrights
WEBSITES AND CONTENT ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
- All content (text, images and other forms) is protected from the time of creation
- Registration is a good idea
- What to do if someone copies your stuff
- What is it really worth?
- What if they just gave you credit?
- Cease & desist letters, lawsuits, settlements, results
- Fees and costs
What to do you if you want to copy someone else’s stuff?
- Can’t you just link to it?
- Is it in the public domain?
- What is fair use?
- What is not fair use?
- What if you get sued?
YOUR BRAND NAMES ARE PROTECTED BY TRADEMARKS
Choosing a brand is very complex – you need to check:
- corporate availability
- domain name availability
- trademarkability
What if someone copies your trademark?
- Are consumers likely to be confused?
- Cease & desist letters, lawsuits, settlements, results
- Fees and costs
What if you want to use a brand that is similar to someone else’s?
- Will consumers be confused?
- Is there such as thing as trademark fair use?
Resources for practically protecting yourself online
Clip & copy: http://www.clipandcopy.com/
Google Alerts http://www.google.com/alerts
Manage logins at social networking sites: http://knowem.com/
Tracer by Tynt: http://www.tynt.com
Duplichecker (online plagiarism checker) (checks chunks of content)
Copyscape (online plagiarism checker) (checks pages)
Freelance Writer
Daily Small Business News Feed
Freelance Writer
This is a great resource and I’ve already tried Copyscape; very easy to use. The tweetchat has some amazing info, so go to http://search.twitter.com and search #SMBchat.
Anita,
Great checklist! It was a very informative #SMBchat on Twitter with @bcjb & @deniseoberry. I got my questions answered in a great way and I learned plenty of things and got much information out of the chat.
Thanks for hosting the event!
[...] the rest here: Checklist for Trademark and Copyright Issues on Your Website … google web business Related PostsAugust 25, 2009 — Five secrets to a faster Web site (0)August 26, [...]
very well said… thanks for the very informative post…
Nice resource, With so much blatent copyright infringement going on around, this checklist definitely helps. We’re always learning.
[...] Checklist for Trademark and Copyright Issues on Your Website | Small Business Trends smallbiztrends.com/2009/08/tweetchat-on-trademark-and-copyright-issues.html – view page – cached The following is a checklist of issues and questions for protecting your online presence for your business, from the standpoint of trademarks and copyrights. We — From the page [...]
Great tip Anita!
[...] RT @smallbiztrends “Checklist for Trademark and Copyright Issues on Your Website” – via [...]