Protecting your intellectual property as a business owner may require more than just monitoring and registering trademarks. Copyright protection is intended to provide coverage to many kinds of fixed representations that exist in tangible mediums. This includes digital forms of authorship, such as websites. If your business has a strong technological presence, or you regard your website as essential to attracting clients and promoting goods and services, then copyright protection may important to safeguard your intellectual property.
The scope of copyright protection. What elements of a business website are eligible for copyright protection? Essentially, the graphics, content and design (or visual components) may all be eligible for copyright. The composite “look” of the website may also be protected through copyright. Many website owners place a copyright notice on their website to denote that the material cannot be used or reproduced without permission. While public notice is not required to claim copyright protection, it is generally prudent to obtain legal protection to ensure enforcement of your rights in the future. Online works, such as websites, are frequently revised and altered. In general, revisions subject to copyright that are published on separate days must be registered individually with a separate application and filing.
Ownership of the copyright. The Copyright Act of 1976 provides that copyright protection is granted to the creator of the original work of authorship. This is a simple concept to apply when the work has a definitive author. With respect to websites, the copyright extends to the author and designer of the website, which may or may not be the business owner and his employees. If creation of the website or components of the website was delegated to an outside vendor, then that provider is the owner of the copyright. In some cases, the business employees have authored the content of the website and therefore the copyright in the content (only) vests in the business.
Use of the copyrighted material. A business owner can reproduce features of the website (such as the visual components) for use in other company materials only if he owns the copyright to those elements. Otherwise, the business owner must obtain permission from the website creator. You may consider entering into a contract with the outside vendor to obtain copyright ownership, but businesses often pay a premium to obtain full ownership of the copyright.
Contact Shane Coons at 949-333-0900 or visit his website at www.ShaneCoonsLaw.com to find out more about his practice.