Today, the internet is a very busy – and often criminal – landscape.  More and more businesses are going online, because it’s how their targeted customers look for their products and services.  Mobile devices such as iPads and iPhones have made it easier than ever for consumers to look for what they need on the go, from literally anywhere they may be.  However, building a website and advertising your services may be the easiest part of the process; it’s often protecting your website that’s the hard part.  As experienced Los Angeles technology attorneys, we want to offer a few tips to help ensure your website is protected.

Allow a lawyer to assist you with obtaining a trademark.  You don’t want to be accused of trademark infringement, so it’s important that even if a domain name is available, you know that the name you want to use for your website is available and clear.  If the name you want is clear, have your attorney file a trademark application with the USPTO.

Protect your content, graphics and other aspects of your website with a copyright.  It’s hard to imagine, but there are many scoundrels on the internet who will literally steal the pages of your website to use for their own.  This includes content, graphics, and other material on your pages.  While you can certainly add “copyright 2013 Your Company Name” at the bottom of your pages (and many do), this won’t offer the protection of filing an application with the U.S. Copyright Office.  If your copyrights are infringed, you may be eligible for certain damages.

Obtain agreements from those who participate in the design, content, and hosting of your website.  Unless you designed your website yourself, wrote the content, designed the graphics and host it on your own server, you need agreements from those who helped build your online presence.  Any third parties who perform work on your behalf are usually independent contractors.  You should make it a priority to obtain written agreements from these third parties, stating that you have rights to the final, finished product.  In other words, you do not want your content writer claiming ownership of your pages or otherwise attempting to withhold your website from you in order to obtain further payment.

If only it was as simple as building a website and moving on about your business today, it would be far less complicated.  Unfortunately, the internet is a complicated and complex world; while the crimes are of a different nature than what you  normally find in the physical world, they still happen – every day.

Let the Los Angeles technology lawyers at Spotora & Associates make sure your company website is well protected, so that you never have to worry about legal issues.