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Getting into website development and starting
your business can be an exciting time, but if you don't take a
few initial protective measures, you could find yourself in
serious trouble.
There are three important points to consider, the first two
of which you should do from the very beginning.
1- Protect yourself and your assets.
If you are
going to start a business, take the time to create a
corporation. You can create a corporation or limited liability
company for as little as $250 at MyCorporation.com
or similar services.
There are countless pitfalls regarding legal liability and
it is impossible to guard yourself against all of them. It
might be something as simple as accidentally violating
intellectual property rights. It could be something as
completely unpredictable as a visitor doing something you
never intended, which leads to a financial loss for the
visitor, and they turn around and sue you.
A real life example: a website ran a classified advertising
service and had all the legal disclaimers that visitors used
the website at their own risk, and all sellers had to follow
very strict guidelines. A visitor did not investigate a seller
thoroughly and wired money to an illegitimate seller. The
visitor did not receive the product, and sued the website
providing the service.
Legal disclaimers are not enough, the only way to protect yourself
is to distance your online ventures from your personal assets.
With the ability to create an LLC online in less than 15
minutes for as little as $250, there is no reason not to.
2- Protect time and money invested.
Don't put a
great deal of time and money into building a website only to
find out several years later that you were violating someone
else's trademark. You can pretty much do this for free by
investing a little time at the US
Patent and Trademark Office.
One of the easiest ways to avoid this type of trouble is to
stick to a unique name, and secure the domain name for it. For
example, if you research a particular domain and see that the
dot.com name extension is taken, and it is a similar business,
look for something else.
Don't make the mistake of thinking you can get away with a
similar name, and after 6 months of using it, nobody has
complained, so you are "in the clear". Chances are
you will not receive a notice of violation until you are
successful enough to be a major threat, in other words, not
until everything is finally going just the way you want it
after several years of trying very hard to build up your
business.
We have seen the scenario listed above happen many times,
so often, it is extremely prudent to fully research your
company name and domain name thoroughly before building your
business.
One important tip, the domain name can be more important
than the company name in terms of future modifications. For
example, if your business name is "Wilson Sporting
Supplies" in Dallas, Texas, and your domain name is
www.wilsonsporting.com, there is a very good chance that you
will be forced to give up the domain name because of trademark
violations against Wilson Sporting Goods (tm).
If however, your name is www.wssupplies.com, you might have
to modify your company name, but you are not as likely to be
forced to give up your domain because it is not similar.
If you do not have the money to invest in a full trademark
search by a trademark attorney, at least run a search at the US
Patent and Trademark Office to be sure you are not
violating someone else's trademark.
3- Protect the business you created.
Once your
business is established, protect it. For roughly $550 you can
have an attorney file a trademark application for you. The
filing date is the most important aspect of a trademark
dispute. Even though it can take up to two years for a
trademark to be approved, it is the filing date which matters
most. Once you have established a successful online business,
spend the money for the trademark application and file as soon
as possible. A fairly common scenario is for someone to see
a successful online business and emulate it, many times to the
point of almost copying the company name. Even if your
business was started first, if the second company files for a
trademark first, many times they will win the trademark
conflict. It is entirely possible for someone to copy your
business after the fact, and force you to change your name,
even though they copied you. It could also be as simple as two
completely unrelated companies starting a similar business,
where there are only so many logical names to choose from. Trademark
disputes have a myriad of gray areas, resulting in very
concrete guidelines, of which the filing date is one of the
most important. If you have a business you want to protect,
file as soon as possible. |
