Plagiarism, the web pages are a good way to promote products and services for businesses. Therefore, more and more people decide to use this tool and have a website. Even so, as a result of the mass creation of websites, plagiarism problems have begun to arise, since many times websites appear that are very similar to others, either at the level of operation, content, design, etc. As a result of this, the question arises: how can we protect our company’s website?
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Elements That Can Be Protected On A Website
First of all, we must take into account what elements the Intellectual Property Law of a website protects. We find:
Technical Tools
All e-commerce systems, search engines and technical tools on the Internet can be protected by patents or as a utility model.
Software
This section refers to the HTML code that has been used to create the website. It can be protected in two different ways:
- Copyright
- Patent: to protect the HTML code by patent, we must take into account national legislation.
Web Design
Normally the design of a web page is protected by copyright.
Content
When we talk about content, we include all texts, photographs, graphics, music and videos. These will be protected by copyright.
Database
The databases generated by the website can also be protected by copyright.
Signs
The signs refer to all trade names, logos, product and domain names that appear on the website. They can be protected as a trademark.
Graphic Symbols, Screen Images, Graphical User Interfaces And Web Page
These can be protected by industrial design legislation.
Confidential Aspects
Confidential aspects include; graphics, source code, object code, algorithms, programs or other technical descriptions, data graphics, logical graphics, user manuals, data structures and database content. We can protect them through trade secrets legislation.
How To Protect My Website?
In order to protect our website, we must take a series of measures and precautions, in order to avoid ownership problems and plagiarism. What should we do?
Protect Intellectual Property Rights
In this case, we must carry out a series of measures, in order to protect our company website:
- Register our brands.
- Register the domain name of our site. When looking for a domain name for our company, it is recommended that it be easy to remember and representative. For this, normally, it is advisable to put the name of the company. It is also advisable that, in the event that the domain name is allowed to be registered as a trademark, we do so, since, in this way, we will prevent other companies that offer services similar to ours from registering the same name as a trademark. There are websites that allow you to buy and sell web domains and see if they have already been registered. In this post, you will find all the necessary information for the sale of domains and their registration.
- Patent business methods. This is not mandatory, but it is advisable, especially in all countries that allow patenting.
- Register our website. We must register our website and all the elements that can be protected with copyright, in copyright offices and in all countries that allow it, since the websites are visible worldwide.
- Confidentiality agreement. To guarantee professional secrecy, such as trade secrets, it is important to have the company’s employees, and suppliers sign a confidentiality agreement, to prevent them from disclosing confidential information about our business.
Inform Users That Content Is Protected
It is convenient to remind users that the material that appears on a website cannot be used freely, but is protected by some of the Intellectual Property rights. To do this, it is convenient to decide what type of licenses and copyrights we will use and indicate it properly on our website. In this post, we can find more information about the types of licenses and copyrights.
Determine What Use Users Can Make Of The Content
It is important to specify how the user can use our content, that is if he can print materials from our website, create links, use the photographs that appear, among others.
Control Access And Use Of The Content That Appears On Our Company’s Website
It is advisable to use protection measures that limit access to our publications. These measures only allow access to those users who have accepted certain conditions of use.
For example, let’s imagine that we provide an eBook that explains how to run a legal online advertising campaign and everything we have to take into account. If we want to restrict access to this eBook posted on our website, we can put it for a fee or provide a code to all users who register on our website. In this way, we will control access and can decide who is authorized to use it.
Use Of Fingerprints
This system makes it possible to identify users who have violated the license agreement by providing information or ownership of content to third parties.
Who owns My Company’s Website?
Determining the owner of the website is difficult as it belongs to different people. For example, computer programs may belong to our company, photographs to another, texts to another, etc. Although we do not have the Intellectual Property rights of all the elements that appear on a website, we must be very clear about what we own and what and how we can use it.
Another factor to take into account is that, initially, who owns the copyright is the person who created the website, that is, the developer and who is often outside the company. In case the company wants to have the copyright of the website, the developer and the company will have to make a transfer of copyright, that is, a contract specifying that the creator of the website assigns all their rights ( design, code, computer programs, etc.) to the company that has commissioned the development of the website.
In the event that the website developer is not willing to assign his copyright to our company, it will only obtain a non-exclusive license that will allow us to use the website.
If we want to have all the copyrights and that the developer does not oppose it, it is recommended that before starting the creation of the page, a written contract is made where the developer agrees to assign their copyright once the page, as well as a website creation agreement.
Requirements To Be Included In The Web Page Creation Agreement
What Will The Website Developer Do?
The tasks to be carried out by the developer and everything to be commissioned (registering a web domain, providing consulting services, maintenance, updating the website, etc.) must be specified exactly.
Material / Content Ownership
It is important to explicitly enter the contract who owns each element that appears on the website.
Guarantee
Determine that all parties are authorized to use the elements that appear on the website.
Maintenance And Update
It must be specified who will be in charge of maintaining and updating the website.
Confidentiality
Including a confidentiality clause in the contract will allow us to ensure that confidential information of our company will not be disclosed to unauthorized third parties to have knowledge of this information.
Responsibility
It is important to decide who will be responsible for solving problems such as trademark infringement lawsuits, links to other sites, designates keywords, etc.
Other Aspects To Consider
It is important to include clauses that refer to the fees and payment for the creation of the website, right or not to compensation, disclaimers, limitation of liability, among others.
Own Or Third-Party Content On A Website’s Blog?
One of the most frequently asked questions when publishing content on a blog is whether you can use other people’s material or it has to be your own creation. To publish content on a blog, it does not necessarily have to be your own, since many blogs have collaborators. Even so, it is advisable to generate your content to avoid copyright problems. This post explains that to use content written by people outside the company, if we want to use it for commercial purposes, we will need your consent.
These are all the requirements that we must take into account if we want to protect our company’s website with the rights granted by the Intellectual Property Law.
Also Read : Legal website Requirements|What Legal Requirements Must A Website Meet?