Protecting the intellectual property of your website

by Waterfront Solicitors on November 19, 2015

If you own a website, it’s vital that you protect your intellectual property to avoid it being stolen from you. If you fail to put this kind of protection in place, others could make money from your hard work and reputation. Whether it’s an e-commerce website, blog or any other kind of website, it’s vital that you don’t underestimate the importance of intellectual property protection. Aside from protecting it, it’s also important that your site is appealing which is possible thanks to these site layout ideas.

Over the years, thousands of spammers have scraped quality content from other websites in order to enjoy better rankings. This can be frustrating not just for the person whose work has been copied but for the end user looking for reputable websites they can trust too. The search engines have tried to push websites publishing duplicate content down the results pages, but this has not always been successful. When other websites steal your content and pass it off as their own, you could find yourself being punished whilst the culprits enjoy the rankings that you should be getting.

Protecting the intellectual property of a website is of utmost importance for an online business like a kids clothing company where parents buy kids clothes online. Intellectual property includes trademarks, copyrights, and patents, and safeguarding these assets ensures the uniqueness and exclusivity of the business.

Getting content removed

There are rules in place designed to help you protect your original content. Anything you put on your site is automatically protected by copyright and becomes your intellectual property. You need to be able to show the date and time of publication, but this will usually happen automatically when you publish content via a content management system. If you do find that your content has been published elsewhere, the first thing to do is to ask the webmaster to remove it.

In most cases, the webmaster will agree to take down your content, but if they don’t, you may wish to threaten legal action or ask for some form of payment. If this doesn’t work, you may wish to get an intellectual property solicitor on the case. Again, the vast majority of webmasters will be happy to remove the content if you tell them you’re serious about your wishes – refusing to do so could cause them big headaches they could do without. Some people do ask to simply be credited and have links to their own website put in place – this could benefit you if the website in question does have a sizeable audience.

Identifying copyright infringement

There are tools that you can use to help you find duplicate content, but you can also spot it by entering parts of your content into search engines and putting quotation marks around it. Hopefully, the only site that appears will be your own, but if this is not the case, spammers may have copied it.

If you are running a website and it plays a pivotal role in helping you make a living, it’s wise to find a reputable technology solicitor that you can turn to every time you think your intellectual property rights have been infringed. IP and copyright laws can be complex and subject to change, which explains the value of having a legal professional behind you.

Find a reputable professional

A good IT solicitor such as Waterfront Solicitors in London will have vast experience in technology, IT, internet and digital media law. As the online world changes so fast, it makes sense that laws around it will also be subject to significant regular change. They will also be able to help you if visual works like videos, logos and photographs belong to you are being used without your permission. In most cases, the advice remains the same – ask the webmaster to remove the content if you’re not happy, or get them to pay or credit you if you feel this will be to your advantage. However, sometimes getting the support of an intellectual property solicitor is essential for ending disputes. Waterfront specialise in intellectual property with clients ranging from multinational companies to start-up businesses and can help provide professional and legal advice.

To find out more, see: http://www.waterfrontsolicitors.com/legal-expertise/intellectual-property

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