You know that you can’t use a competitor’s trademarks or infringe on their patents or copyrights. However, the digital age has brought about a shift in thought. Some business people seem to forget that copyrights apply to digital content. Here are three common online practices that amount to stealing someone else’s intellectual property (IP).
- Not knowing the difference between royalty-free and free images – Royalty-free images don’t require a royalty every time you use the picture. But you still have to buy a one-time license for use. Websites and photographers that sell images are working along with search engines to try and prevent the practice of using copyrighted content without a license.
- Copying blogs or website content – Often the mistake is in hiring a disreputable freelancer to take care of your content. Instead of writing fresh content for you, the freelancer takes content from somewhere else on the web and portrays it as his own. Google penalizes this practice, so be sure to vet your content freelancers well. It’s better to pay a little more to know what you are getting.
- Unsourced social media reposts – You wouldn’t think of writing an essay without crediting sources. However, every day, people repost social media content without giving credit to the original poster. If you don’t know the source, it is better not to use it at all because social media posts are protected as having been published online.
Protect Your IP and Don’t Infringe on a Competitor
Pokala Law APC APC can help you to protect your IP and provide you with advice on how to avoid infringing on another person’s content. Call us today at 1.844.695.1487, or you can request an appointment online.
