How to protect your intellectual property

Before getting into the core of the article regarding how to protect your intellectual property, let us imagine a situation. You kept late hours prepared a very unique article for your blog, writing about an idea you have been thinking for a long time. You published the article and it seems the audience grabbed it. It became a hit! But in the very next day, you came to notice that about hundreds of blogs copied your text and published them in theirs; most of the copies were almost word-to-word.

Now you realize the terrible effect of copyright infringement. It’s true that internet world is still not one favorable to protect your intellectual property. But there are laws, rules and ways, awareness of which will help you face cases of copyright infringement.

Make yourself aware of necessary copyright laws

At first, right now, before facing any cases of violation or even before publishing the intellectual property. There are lots of website where you can find information about basics of trademarks, copyright acts, patents etc. But one has to keep in mind that the law protects the way you express your idea, not the idea itself.

One can write about your unique idea using own words, praising or criticizing it. You are free to dislike it, but not to sue the content creator.

Do a show-off

Once you are aware of the laws, show the audience your knowledge of that. How? Publishing a short notice about copyright may work. Most of the websites show such notices at the footer and it appears at the bottom whatever page the audience open. Depending on your concern about infringement, you can make the notice a more visible or stricter in language. But keep in mind that, most of the violators do it unintentionally, mainly from a love for your content. Otherwise You will also build a page where the viewers can find explicit rules about how to use your intellectual property. A contact e-mail or phone number can be given in case of emergency.

When violation happened

Even after all the steps you have taken, there are still a lot you can do. First, tell them politely how their intellectual violation breaks your interest. You can begin with humble thanks and point out the violation. If it does not work, shift yourself to a more demanding voice. Show the offender the law and demand to take down the content. A normal sane offender should sense the gravity of the situation and come in terms with you. But dealing with people is not always so easy.

If the offender still sticks into his position, then there is another way, which a little more complex. Websites like “Whois Record’ will give the idea about the hosting provider of the offender’s website. You can easily contact with hosting provider through e-mail and show them how their customer has violated your lawful rights. They may do some own investigation and you can make them take the website down from the server.

The Attorney

This is the step which most of us would like to avoid. But as a young entrepreneur, you cannot let it happen again and you must protect yourself under the guidance of law. You can hire an attorney. But before doing it because of anger, you have to calculate your loss because of this infringement and if the cost of attorney worthy.

Keep another thing in mind, there is no assurance of success in this process, even after bearing all the expenses and waiting for a long time.

Patent your intellectual properties

Register your company name, logo, slogan, design and contents as early as possible. This may not seems a very comfortable idea for an enthusiastic beginner, but if you have a bigger plan for your business, there is no other way left. Prepare yourself for copyright infringement of your intellectual property before even facing it.

Lastly we can look into a case of copyright violation with a tinge of positivity, I mean before freaking out. Your intellectual property, for example, blog content published in another website, can mean that they liked it and they wanted to made a publicity of it (only with your name mentioned in it). Besides, hyperlinks also help in search engine optimization.

Now if you think the case should be considered far more seriously, then you can go through the following steps. But remember, you have to judge the depth of the situation first, and then proceed with patience, of course not letting the anger take control of your action.