When the Web first began to form popular culture more than a decade ago, few may have anticipated the astounding impact it would have on commerce, education and even social relationships. Sadly, the Web's ability to foster commerce and creativity often collides with preexisting laws that are not well-suited to this new medium. As its use and applications continue picking up speed, the courts and legislators responsible for developing Internet-related law must marvel if they will ever catch up.
One space where this is often readily apparent is intellectual property law, particularly copyrights and trademarks. The law has been slow to adapt, many issues stay unaddressed and many of the laws out there are punitive. In this international, instantaneous network of human creativity, laws that are too restrictive or too punitive may jeopardize the intellectual wealth and dynamism that build the Internet what it's today.
As the law struggles to adapt, businesses (and people, for that matter) would be wise to follow the ancient tenets of intellectual property law -- field designed precisely to encourage individual entrepreneurship and creativity. Then, as the law adapts, so must Web participants.
Essentially, intellectual property laws shield the rights one has when he or she creates one thing new. They'll apply to the written word and visual arts, laptop programs and manufacturing processes. Within the United States, the laws have fostered creativity as a result of people will make money -- typically tons of cash -- from the new things they create.
Intellectual property as outlined by law encompasses
? copyrights (literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pictorial or graphic, audiovisual, or architectural work, or a sound recording);
? emblems (words, names, symbols, devices or any combination thereof used to spot and distinguish product or services of one company from those sold by others);
? patents (to safeguard new inventions, including devices, strategies, processes or compositions of matter); and
? trade secrets (confidential business practices or information).
Currently, businesses that interact in online activities, whether simply promotional or totally interactive, realize copyright and trademark laws to be most problematic.
Copyright infringement is perhaps the most pervasive downside on the Net today when it involves intellectual property. The World Wide Net is a huge engine of creativity, comprising several participants sharing data back and forth. Routinely, data is passed from one party to another and then another. Eventually, some 40 or 40,000 connections later, it can be tough if not not possible to attribute the knowledge to the original source.
To guard your company from copyright infringement, continuously do your best to attribute info acquired through different parties, including those on the Internet. Familiarize yourself with the protections offered by the "fair use" exception to copyright infringement.
If yours is a site that operates on-line bulletin boards, auctions, chat rooms and links to different Net sites, you'll wish to be familiar with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Beneath the DMCA, your company is protected from copyright infringement on your web site that stems from user-generated content so long as you inform users of your copyright-compliant policies and cling to the notice and takedown procedures outlined in that law.
Emblems are particularly difficult nowadays. It was once that separate firms in Wisconsin and California might give similar native services below similar business names or with like logos or slogans and never even know the opposite exists. Through the Web, these firms will and do collide with shocking frequency. And one (or both, if a brand new player comes along) could be forced to alter its company identity.
The final rule here is that whoever goes to the hassle to register the trademark initial owns it. The recommendation to business owners: If you are serious about your company name, logo or slogan, get it trademarked.
Additionally, as tempting because it may be, business house owners should resist the urge to include unrelated global or national brands in their Internet website meta tags. This can be a tactic several firms have used to draw traffic to their Internet sites, trying to maximize fashionable search terms -- and also the intellectual properties of alternative companies -- to promote their own brand. However it's seldom worth facing lawsuits from these deep-pocketed company giants. Keep in mind that if they've considered their brand important enough to invest legion dollars in promoting it, they won't hesitate to speculate what's needed to safeguard it.
Today, we tend to know the Web permits businesses to seek out info, get and share ideas, sell product, bond with alternative sellers and find smart vendors. It's an necessary, if not essential, place to be.
What we don't apprehend, however, is how social media can have an effect on intellectual property law (and vice versa) or what new legal challenges await. Within the meantime, all we tend to have is traditional law, good legal advice and our own moral sense to stay us on a somewhat safe footing.
Author Resource:
Adam has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Intellectual Property and therefore the Web - What to Apprehend Before You Post
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