Practically, every successful company has a website. While a website will generate you business, websites can also land you in legal trouble if you are not familiar with internet and business law. While all business law applies to companies that are building a website for their brick and mortar company or for companies that are going to operate strictly online, there are unique internet laws that many entrepreneurs may not know about. Here are 5 legal issues you must keep in mind to prevent landing yourself a lawsuit when you make your site go live.
1. Choosing a Domain Name That Violates Trademark Laws
Trademark laws can be very complicated. If a company has a trademark, you cannot use any part of that trademark in your domain name or you might be accused of trademark infringement. You will need to learn about trademarks and patents and check to see if your domain name contains any conflicting words before you purchase a domain name.
2. Your Policies
Every legitimate business website needs to have a privacy policy, a terms of use page, and a page where notices can be published. You should include information about your linking instructions if other sites want to link to you, about the terms for reproducing content, and about how information will be used if it is collected from a visitor. Failing to have a page linking to your policies can land you in hot water.
3. Linking to Outside Sites
While many business sites would love you to link to them, it can violate the law in some cases. If you are in the process of link building, take caution and try to review the publisher’s rules on their linking policies page. They may have policies that disallow linking, unless the link will take the visitor directly to their home page where most of their advertising is found.
4. Knowing Your Duties and Rights as a Corporation
If you are building a corporation, you need to know your liabilities and what you are immune to as a business entity. Because this topic can be complicated, it is best to meet with a lawyer that will help you understand the laws built into the Business Corporations Act. Using Lexis Nexis corporations act services will help you to understand your duties, responsibilities and even your rights.
5. Copyrights
You should always keep copyright protection in mind when building a website. You have rights and protection under copyright laws and you need to take advantage of these laws by posting a copyright notice on every page that is built into your website. Make sure you are not violating the copyrights of any other companies as well, whether it be text or images.
Just because anyone can make a website does not mean that they will not face any legal issues. Just remember to make sure and consider all of the issues you may face, know the laws, and have a lawyer by your side that can help you save your business reputation, time and money.