Marketing Yourself Online | Legal Advice For Protecting You And Your Business
The success of your business is important and marketing yourself online through your website and social media is an important way to ensure that success. However, marketing yourself online also makes it possible for anyone to copy and use your content. Copycats take ideas, concepts, designs, or words already online and copy them for their own use. Imitation may sometimes be the ultimate form of flattery but when someone copies and uses your hard work you are less likely to be flattered and more likely to be furious.
As you know we firmly believe that in business, prevention is better than cure. So how can you protect your business online? Set out below are 3 steps you can take to ensure you're protected. We have also included some helpful advice on what to do if you do encounter a copycat.
Step 1. Have the right business documents.
The documents you need in your business will depend on the nature and type of business you are operating.
If you are operating a service-based business for example, then the core ‘trio’ of documents that you must have are:
• Business Terms & Conditions (or your Service Agreement/Terms of Trade etc);
• Website Terms & Conditions; and
• Privacy Policy.
Your Website Ts & Cs are designed to protect your online business. They clearly outline the expectations of visitors to and users of your website. They also provide clear guidance about how your content can be used, modified, shared or repurposed. They place a disclaimer to limit your liability arising from the use of your website and the material on it, and they will protect your intellectual property.
Step 2. Obtain business legal advice to protect your intellectual property
You work hard in your business, and you need to be clear on what intellectual property you own, and what you have exclusive use over. This can be tricky, so be sure to get good business legal advice!
A trademark protects your brand name and logo on your website. There is a formal registration process to apply for a trademark. If your business needs to have exclusive use of your business name or tagline, be proactive and get advice from your business lawyer about whether you can apply for a trademark (hint – not everything can be trademark, and just because you want to doesn’t necessarily mean you can!).
What about your own creative and original works? This work automatically attracts copyright protection. Copyright won’t protect your entire website. However, it can protect certain parts of your website. If your business produces original content or material, for example, articles, photography, design or blogs, then this material is protected automatically by copyright laws. If you have this material published in your website make sure you have drawn attention to your copyright in your website terms and conditions. It is also a good idea to display a copyright symbol or notice on your website.
Step 3. Include protection in your contractor and employment agreements
It is important to set up a framework to protect your business in case someone who has worked for your business leaves and then sets up in competition with you using your ideas. There are a range of protections your business lawyer can put in place in your contractor and employment agreements that include clauses protecting copyright and confidential information and preventing someone from setting up in competition with you.
What to do if you encounter a copycat?
If someone does copy your material and ideas, act quickly and obtain business legal advice from your business lawyer. It is important to seek advice because not every use of your work will be an infringement of your rights. Your business lawyer can determine if your copyright or trademark has been infringed and then recommend the next steps to take.
Next steps include following a complaints process offered by a social media platform. The main social media platforms have complaints processes which enable you to report copyright infringement and request that infringing material is removed. The next steps also include legal responses which can be a cease and desist letter all the way through to the much more expensive steps of mediation and litigation. For example, if a person has infringed your trademark or copyright, or breached clauses in contractor and employment agreements then your business lawyer can send a letter of demand requiring the person to cease and desist from infringing your rights. This formal letter may be enough to fix the problem for you. However, sometimes the copycat may simply ignore this kind of letter. If they do you will need to decide in consultation with your business lawyer whether proceeding with legal action is the best solution for you and your business.
If you found this helpful, you may like to jump over and read more about important legal advice in this article: Legal Advice For Small Business.
We are here to help, if you would like some assistance please reach out to us.
