Intellectual property
Take care when users post on your website
One of the decisions that website owners often need to make these days is whether to allow people to add comments or other content to their website. Of itself, this isn’t a legal issue, but a decision to allow comments or other user content on a website does give rise to legal considerations. These considerations […]
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Bidding on competitors’ trade marks in AdWords
Should you bid on a competitor’s trade mark in AdWords? This is a simple question, but not one that has a simple answer. The High Court ruled in 2013 that you should not, as doing so would amount to a trade mark infringement. The case before the court involved Marks & Spencer and Interflora. M&S […]
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Copyright in website images
As simple as it is to find images online, one could be forgiven for thinking it is just as easy to know which images may be used. Unfortunately, the complexities of copyright law and the limited awareness of its rules can make the process of finding and using images a potential minefield for businesses. No […]
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The future of digital copyright
Copyright is the property right the law gives authors/creators and those taking ownership from them to control the copying and other forms of exploitation of their creations or “works”. The traditional view is that copyright arose out of lobbying by printers to prevent the piracy of their books. So in one sense it was a […]
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Copyright, fair use and the advance of culture
The problem with a lot of the debate about copyright is that it becomes polarised. It’s “big media” v the “little guy”. It’s “closed copyright, a barrier to innovation” v “open internet, cultural advancement and freedom of expression”. It’s bad guy, good guy. It’s also not unusual to read that the absence of a “fair […]
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Can copyright adapt to the digital age?
The copyright “paradox” Copyright works, created by professionals and amateurs alike, are ubiquitous on the network, on social media platforms, websites and online services. In June this year, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and Imperial College published new estimates of investment in the UK’s copyright industries, of which the publishing industry is a significant part. […]
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Keeping up with IP law
There is no shortage of blogs and updates on intellectual property law as IP is a particular preoccupation as the internet and the knowledge economy develop. Here’s a selection, with links to these and more in the infolaw Lawfinder Blogs catalogue. The IPKat and family One of the longest-established bloggers on IP law is Prof […]
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Music crime – is the record industry buckling under the pressure?
Illegal downloading is a devastating problem for the record industry. £650 million was lost last year to music crime and £1.1 billion in the three preceding years. Illegal downloading takes place when a user obtains a digital music file over the internet. The source of this digital file is known as the uploader. More often […]
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