Intellectual Property Infringement on the Internet

As the web expands, Intellectual Property infringement on the Internet is rampant.  Unfortunately, there are always individuals who want to profit from the brand name and good will built by IP owners.  Intellectual property includes copyrighted material, trademarks, and trade dress. Below is a few examples of Intellectual Property on the Internet:

Copyrights -  Includes blog posting, articles, images, and musical compositions.

Trademarks – Includes brand names, company names, logos, and tag lines.

Trade Dress – Includes highly distinctive product packaging.

An owner of Intellectual Property must be proactive and vigilant in protect their IP on the net.  Here are a few basic steps an individual or entity can implement right now to put the public on notice of their IP rights.

Copyrights

An IP owner should include a copyright notice on all original works of authorship.  This includes blog posting, images, and sound recordings.  In addition, one should include a statement on any website containing copy written material that states the following:

All Content on Site X are protected by U.S. Copyright. This site is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You are free to site or quote material on this site if you first obtain our permission and if you properly attribute the material back to Site X.

For Trademarks and Trade Dress

Regardless of whether you have obtained an official trademark registration from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, include a TM sign behind all trademarks.  The TM sign alerts the public that you are claiming a right in the trademark.  Once you have obtained federal trademark registration, you can place the R sign on all marks.  In addition, if your product has highly distinctive packaging, such as the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle, you can protect Trade Dress with the TM or R symbol also.  As an alternative, you can include the following statement on any site containing any registered trademark:

Betys Bottles is a registered trademark of the Betsy Business Corporation.

Here are a few more steps and individual can take to further protect Intellectual Property on the Internet:

1. Watermark your copyrighted images. A watermark can contain an image across the photo with your copyright notice or the name of your site or brand name.

2. Do keyword searches of your trademarks and be proactive about contacting infringers and demanding they remove your intellectual property from their sites immediately.

3. For as little as $249.00 per trademark, use a company like Mark Trend to track and monitor possible and actual trademark infringement on the internet. Using a montioring service like Mark Trend will save you money and most imporantly time. They do all the work for you.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment.