Copyrights and E-Business

How can I protect my business, my brand name, my domain name, or published material from being copied on the Web?

You should be aware that some matters are not protected by patent or copyright laws. These are know-how and ideas (i.e. ideas are for free development). The above are difficult to protect, except by means of a confidentiality agreement. It is necessary to have such a contract to prevent any collaborators, partners, subcontractors, customers, etc., from exploiting ideas that a company wishes to protect. In practice, protection is ensured by undertakings of confidentiality and non-competition clauses in contracts, and penalty clauses in the event of any violation of the agreement. In addition, several countries provide certain facilities; for example, the possibility to deposit a sealed, date-stamped envelope containing details of a trade secret at the national industrial property institute, or to deposit such secrets with a third party using a logibox (for example, the source code of software and its digital support), which, although conferring no right (except that of a possible anteriority), will allow the bad faith of a plagiarist to be shown. The laws of most countries protect brand names (trademarks) when they are distinctive and nonfraudulent. Protection for trademarks is usually obtained through registration in a government office. The minimum period of protection for trademarks under the World Trade Organization's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement is seven years from the date of initial registration. Registration is renewable indefinitely. A brand name can also be deposited for registration at the international level with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Protection of the brand will then last 20 years in the member states of the Madrid Agreement. In Europe, the business community can file to register a European trademark under the European Council's EC Regulation n° 40-94 of 20 December 1993. The protected trademark can cover one or more classes of products, and its holder has the right of ownership. It should be noted that a design can be protected by both copyright and trademark laws at the same time. Manifestly known brand names, even if they are not the subject of an application for registration, are protected. The illegal copying of a trademark can be the subject of an infringement proceeding. The illegal registration of a brand name counterfeiting an existing trademark can be the subject of an action in cancellation or of an action in claim to determine the rightful owner of the trademark.