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Trademark & Copyright Protection On The Internet By Donna Cain
TRADEMARK & COPYRIGHT PROTECTION ON THE INTERNET Does the ordinary Internet business really need to get trademark & copyright protection, you might ask? Absolutely! The Internet makes it more crucial, because the business website is the storefront where the business goods and/or services are sold. Most e-commerce businesses will have thousands invested into website and business development. Why, after all of this hard work and money, do many business owners leave their companies vulnerable for others to take their name, logo, and website design? The answer is that many business owners simply fail to realize how important trademark & copyright protection are before it is too late. There is a misconception that only the big companies need trademark & copyright protection. Well, if big companies with large legal staffs are worried about trademark & copyright infringement, then the rest of us should definitely be worried. Until the Internet became popular, most businesses could expect its marketing activities to be limited to its town or state. With business on the Internet, the very idea of local is disappearing. An e-commerce business is instantly catapulted into doing business nationally and even internationally as soon as the website is marketed. There are approximately 11 million domain names issued and over 200 million Internet users world-wide. With this explosion in Internet growth, online businesses need protection against opportunists seeking to capitalize on the hard-earned business of the successful Internet business owner. What is a trademark? A trademark "TM" is a word, symbol, slogan, or design, or combination of these which identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods or services. A service mark "SM" is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. An Internet domain name (url) is considered a service mark. Because of the large number of new businesses starting on the Internet, it is easy to unwittingly pick a new business name and logo that conflicts with a mark already in use. For this reason, a name search and trademark & copyright protection are essential for all Internet businesses. How about a copyright? A copyright is a form of intellectual property law which protects original works of authorship including computer software and websites. It protects the original way an idea is expressed, not the idea itself. This protection is given to works to prevent unauthorized copying without approval of the owner of the copyright. With the growth of Internet businesses, many new websites are formed by merely copying an existing website, stealing the hard work of the copyright owner. Trademark conflicts are increasing daily on the Internet. The toy maker Hasbro Inc. has an injunction preventing another company "candyland.com" from using its domain name. Hasbro intends to host its "Candy Land" children's board game and asked InterNIC to suspend the other company's "candyland.com" domain name. InterNIC suspended the other company's domain name on the basis that "if a trademark holder disputes the ownership of a domain name and the domain owner has no proof of trademark, the domain address can be suspended". Playboy sued Calvin Designer Label for including trademarked names in its Internet address and programming. Information hidden in computer code may constitute trademark infringement by Calvin Designer. Placing trademark names in invisible codes, called meta-tags is illegal. The news site "Totalnews.com" is in dispute with several news sources for trademark violations in framing the news sources on its website. The need for trademark & copyright protection has never been more critical for the continued success of an Internet business. The explosive growth in Internet businesses has put many businesses in violation with other companies' trademarks. For further information, refer to LegalName.com� website at http://LegalName.com. Jerry D. Hunt, President LegalName.com, a division of Trademark Connection LLC 13610 N. Scottsdale Rd. #10-171 Scottsdale, AZ 85254
-- Donna Cain CEO of CORE Music Books and Supplies CORE Music Books and Supplies

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