Intellectual property has to be a major consideration for anyone who’s created a unique piece of work which they don’t want to be copied. With copyright you can apply to protect anything youve created which is unique. Copyright is not just for protecting films and music, its just as important that businesses take it seriously too.
When it comes to business law businesses need to make sure anything they own exclusively or have created themselves is copyrighted. This is especially important if someone taking your work could have a direct effect on your revenue. Things that a business should consider copyrighting include data bases or client lists. These have typically been built by your business and will often be unique. One of the most common consequences of this data been neglected is when an ex-employee takes this data with them when they leave. Unless their employment contract specifically forbade them from doing this they wouldn’t be breaking their employment law. Copyright law would protect this data making it impossible for anyone to take your data.
Another common area many business neglect when it comes to intellectual property law are their websites. Its common for websites to be designed by outsourcers or subcontractors in which case the person originally designed the site will own the intellectual property. You would have paid them for their time and skill and not the actual content. This is why its essential you always make sure you contracts ensure you own not just the actual site but the content management system behind it. You are even able to copyright the code behind software with intellectual property law. It’s treated the same way as any other piece of written work. Before you can apply for anything to be copyrighted you need to ensure it can be physically written down, its distinctive and its original. You wouldnt be protecting the functionality of the software though, it would just be the code behind it. In order to protect the functionality youd need to seek professional advice as this can be very complicated.
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Tags: copy right, copyright, intellectual property
