Liability Briefing on e-Business

Intellectual property rights
Database rights
Insurance

Intellectual property rights (IPRs)

IPRs are mainly in the form of copyright and trademarks when dealing with websites and email (although other IPRs such design rights and patent may be applicable to email attachments and other software). Copyright is a property right which protects original works from being copied. It is the right of the creator of the work and not necessarily the person who pays for the work. Under English law there is no need to register a copyright. The right arises automatically upon creation of the work.

IPRs protect the work and not the idea. If say a website has an idea which you want to protect and do not want your website designers to use the idea for other sites , the way to obtain legal protection for the idea is to agree terms restricting use and disclosure. Non-disclosure agreements are important and ought to be used whenever you disclose to a third party a potential e-commerce venture, as these are often easily imitated and any competitive advantage lost as a consequence.

Database rights

The use of your website and other software may result in the collation of a database of subscriber and contact details. It is likely that this will have involved some intellectual input involving its creation. This may give rise to a right to a database copyright under current legislation. Click here to find out more.

Insurance

Can insurance cover be obtained to deal with potential risks arising from eBusiness? There are specialist products on the market but the products that offer adequate protection do not come cheap. Usually IT Consultants are brought in to conduct a risk assessment in relation to your e-business venture and produce a report for underwriters. The costs of producing this report are borne by you. The underwriters will then take a view on the potential areas of risk and price for these in the premium it quotes. It could also decline to offer cover if it feels that the venture is too risky and that it lends itself open to claims. Thus, insurance is not a substitute for compliance.

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