8 Steps to Prevent Unauthorized Use of Intellectual Property Online

Your company’s Intellectual Property (IP), regardless of what it is or the form in which it is existing, is often more valuable than anything else. Hence, the security teams and IP executives of your firm must understand the need to keep these crucial assets safe against the rapidly emerging dark forces that are continuously trying to steal them. With the advancements in digital technologies, robbery and unauthorized use of inventive works like pictures, content, or other vital IPs have become very common. The unique online IP assets that are intended to gain followers and customers for your business if stolen and used by others can reduce your profits. Therefore, it is essential to legitimately prohibit others from infringing on your online intellectual property.

Steps to Protect your IP Online

Is somebody already using your work and thus, earning on your name? Don’t worry as the following steps will not only help you in dealing with unlawful use of your work but also reduce the possibilities of your IP’s theft in the future.

  1. Comprehending Copyright Law is Must: Your unique blog, picture, content, and video are your IP and get protected from the moment you create them. Undoubtedly, it means that no one can use the work without your permission, but many people (knowingly or unknowingly) still try to reproduce it. No matter what the reason is, people often try to steal and use your assets. Nonetheless, you can prevent them from doing so by using the copyright protection surrounding your work, but as different work is protected differently, there is a need to have a deep insight into copyright law. Besides, filing a wrong Copyright Infringement case can leave you with penalties, thus turning it more significant to comprehend the law.
  2. Issue an Official Copyright Notice: Such notices are one of the best means to prevent people from violating your work as it informs people that the particular work is your IP. Though these notices don’t grant additional protection or rights, yet putting them in your content can keep your work safe.
  3. Formulate an Easily Understandable Permission Policy: Create an explicit permission policy that provides clear statistics about how users can use your work. Tell them for what kind of use they need to take your permission and what they can use without seeking your consent. It will benefit you by making people consult you before using your content as well as by giving a published standard that you can refer to if anyone infringes your IP.
  4. Have insight into Users’ Intention: Not every person who re-posts your work does so to violate it. Some may do this as they are not aware of the law or the fact that the work is your IP. Moreover, a few may be using it just because they want to develop the interest of their target readers. Hence, be cautious and have an ideology about the users’ intention behind using your asset before taking any legal step.
  5. Request Removal of your Work: Many times, the users’ motives are not harmful, i.e., they are violating your Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) unknowingly. Even after executing the previously mentioned step, if you still come across such users, be kind to them and try not to suppress their enthusiasm. Send an email or put a comment informing them that they are unintentionally committing an illegal act. Furthermore, suggest them to get benefitted from your work by using it legally as per your permission policy.
  6. Turn Your Request into Demand: Are the users not responding to your request aptly? It’s time to be a little bit rigid and turn your request into demand. Send a demand letter or an email asking the users who are behaving as offenders to remove your copyrighted content from their site.
  7. Extract Benefits from Infringer’s Hosting Service: Are the offenders still not ready to cooperate? Carry out some searches and discover their WhoIs record. You can do this by utilizing the efficient tool named as DomainTools. The information gathered in this way will reveal their domain registration information, encompassing the details of the host of the website. Create an email, including statistics that why you want the offenders to remove your work from their website. The legitimate service on receiving your email will investigate the case, and if it discovers your request appropriate, then demand the offender to respond as you want. Nonetheless, if the infringers don’t act aptly, it will take their website down.
  8. Hire an Attorney-at-law: Do the service providers appear shady, incompetent, or offshore? Relax as it is not a new concern, many people suffer from the same one. At this instance, IP attorneys can serve you with relief by putting such nasty infringers out of your professional life. They can even proffer guidelines on How to Manage Intellectual Property, how to ensure effective IP Portfolio Review and Management, etc., to avoid similar worries in the future.

IP is the base of almost every business, and thus, no one can afford to lose these valuables in others’ hands. Hopefully, the steps in this article will prove beneficial in safeguarding your intellectual property online. So don’t miss out on these steps as not directly but undoubtedly they play a crucial role in your overall success. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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