Checklist for Trademark and Copyright Issues on Your Website

The following is a checklist of issues and questions for protecting your online presence for your business, from the standpoint of trademarks and copyrights. We will be updating this as our tweetchat event (#smbchat) progresses.

Introductory reading

• Basic intellectual property terminology — the difference between copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property
• Introduction to trademarks
• Introduction to copyrights

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)

From Small Business Trends