Checklist for Trademark and Copyright Issues on Your Website


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The following is a checklist of issues and questions for protecting your online presence for your business, from the standpoint of trademarks and copyrights.

Introductory reading

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)


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Anita Campbell Anita Campbell is the Founder, CEO and Publisher of Small Business Trends and has been following trends in small businesses since 2003. She is the owner of BizSugar, a social media site for small businesses.

9 Reactions
  1. 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.

  2. 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!

  3. very well said… thanks for the very informative post…

  4. Nice resource, With so much blatent copyright infringement going on around, this checklist definitely helps. We’re always learning.

  5. Great tip Anita!