Protecting Your Rights
If you are the author of any work, and you can prove it, you are automatically protected under copyright laws from the time the work is created. Of course, some people choose to take steps to formally protect their works, by registering them with the U.S. Copyright Office. Regardless of whether you officially register your works, it’s in your best interest to be vigilant about protecting them from misuse.
Another way to ensure people recognize that your work is protected is to feature the Copyright symbol (©) with your company’s name on each page of your site. For example:
© 2008 Network Solutions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
An even more comprehensive approach is to include the full range of dates your site has been active. This option helps protect revisions and changes that occur over time:
© 2001-2008 Network Solutions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
On a regular basis, you should also crawl the Web using keywords related to your business, searching competitor sites, investigating the use of your company’s name and any of your product names (be sure to also search names that are similar though not identical). Become Internet savvy. Check out popular industry blogs. Subscribe to RSS feeds so that the latest industry-related postings are delivered to your desktop. If you cannot afford to take the time to proactively monitor what’s happening online, then consider hiring a service or a compliance officer to conduct searches for you.
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Interviewee: Linda Larsen
About the Interviewee: Linda Larsen has been a corporate paralegal for over 20 years, specializing in Corporate Law, SEC Compliance and Intellectual Property. For the past 8 years her primary focus has been Intellectual Property. Larsen currently acts as the Designated Agent for Network Solutions, LLC, addressing matters related to copyright infringement.
This article was written in conjunction with Kim Murphy, a freelance writer with 23 years’ experience writing and producing results-oriented materials for print, presentations, and the Web.
Legal Disclaimer: This article is not meant for legal guidance and should not be considered legal advice. Please consult a lawyer for the issues railed in this article.