Internet Issues What are the intellectual property DOs and DON'Ts of developing a new web site? Important Disclaimer Developing a new web site or upgrading an existing site requires careful consideration. How can you guard against others copying your ideas, graphics and materials? And how can you avoid infringing other people's rights? Here are some basic DOS AND DON'Ts. For information specific to your particular site or planned site, contact us. DOs Do have a patent attorney and an Internet lawyer conduct an audit of your site prior to its launch to ensure that you will not face problems after launch, when it may be much more difficult to solve them. Do put a copyright notice on every page of your site, eg. © 2002 XYZ Company Ltd. - this may act as a deterrent to potential copiers. Do register any trade marks you use on your site, both for the products/services you offer and also for retail and/or mail order services Do register your domain name as a trade mark, if possible (contact us to find out whether or not your domain name is registrable as a trade mark) Do ask a patent attorney, before you go live, whether any original software written for use on your site might be patentable, and if so, file patent applications. Do obtain permission to link to others' pages or sites wherever possible to avoid any future conflicts. This may have a side benefit of encouraging others to link to your site. Do ensure that you have valid copyright ownership agreements with anyone who has developed your site or who has created any original content, graphics or collections of data on your site. Otherwise, you may find that you donŐt actually own parts of your site. Contact us for agreements. Do regularly scan the net for any sites linking to yours to determine whether the links are suitable or not. Do regularly scan the net for sites in which your name or company name, marks or domain name are being used either in the body of a site or as a meta tag or keyword, to determine whether such use is suitable or not. DON'Ts Don't use others' trade marks on your site without permission. Don't use a domain name that is the same or similar to any trade marks or names of any other company you are aware of. Contact us for assistance in determining whether your name might already be owned by others. Don't link to original materials, such as articles, written by others without their permission. To be safe, link only to home pages, and not to particular documents within a site (unless the information is clearly meant to be freely available for example as in a government public information site). Don't use meta tags or keywords that are the trade marks or names of others'. Don't place anything on your site that you have either not created yourself or have had created for you or that you do not have permission from others' to put on your site. Don't copy lists of links created by others. Using some links from a list of links is acceptable, but there may be copyright in a carefully compiled list of links. For more detailed information about internet related issues or for an intellectual property audit of your site, contact us. Intellectual Property FAQ Disclaimer IMPORTANT - Please read this disclaimer carefully as it concerns your rights. The Intellectual Property FAQ are intended to provide general information only and not advice with regard to specific cases. The information given is non-exhaustive. Furthermore the relevant law and its interpretation is liable to change and may vary from country to country. You should contact us for advice specific to your own situation. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information, no responsibility can be accepted by any member (firm or individual) of the Lloyd Wise Group for any inaccuracies or omissions, however caused therein. Nor can any responsibility be accepted for any loss or damage to any company or person as a result of actions taken or not taken on the basis of the Intellectual Property FAQ.