IT and new technologies law
Nowadays it is virtually impossible not to have a presence on the Internet, especially if you are a company. This new space is often poorly mastered in terms of legal obligations. We can help you every step of the way:
Domain names
Reservation and management of domain name portfolios
As with choosing a trademark, the reservation of a domain name should in principle be subject to prior verification. indeed, from the moment your domain name is linked to an active website, you are using it for business purposes and could potentially be infringing third-party rights if you have not checked the name’s availability.
What’s more, managing many domain names can be a time-consuming process, involving a number of different operators within the company who do not always work in harmony: marketing, legal, IT, general secretariat, etc.
The management of your portfolio should be optimized to ensure sufficient coverage for your business and prevent cybersquatting as far as possible.
The BRANDON IP teams can advise you to implement your domain name protection strategy and manage these assets alongside you.
Domain name recovery and transfer
Are you planning to use a domain name but it is not available? Under certain conditions, it may be possible to recover it for you. We can help you identify the owner, contact them anonymously and, if necessary, negotiate the purchase of the domain name you are interested in.
We can then include the management of this domain name into your existing portfolio and take care of transfer and maintenance operations.
Domain name watch
Just as it is necessary to monitor whether third parties are registering identical or similar signs as trademarks, it is also advisable to keep an eye out for potentially fraudulent domain name reservations. This will enable you to identify counterfeiters quickly and act before domain names or corresponding websites become too widely known and confusing for consumers.
UDRP – PARL – SYRELI disputes / complaints
In the event of cybersquatting, there are alternative dispute resolution procedures. Complaints can be lodged with several institutions, depending on the type of domain name extension (.com, .net, .fr, etc.). This is a well-argued procedure that requires a certain amount of formalism but avoids to take the dispute to court.
3 conditions must be met for a UDRP procedure:
- The domain name must be identical or confusingly similar to a trademark to which you have rights
- The domain name holder has no legitimate interest in reserving the domain name
- The domain name has been registered or os being used in bad faith.
Find out more about our domain name services.
Website
Today it is essential to have a presence on the Internet, most often through the creation of a website linked to your domain name(s).
This exercise must comply with a series of legal rules that many economic players are unaware of.
Copyright
It is important to make sure you have the right to include a text or image in your website, if it is original.
Many companies have sprung up around these issues and their claims are sometimes irrelevant (copyright trolls). Our teams can advise you on what you can and cannot do.
Mandatory information
There are several categories of compulsory information to be included in a website, particularly a merchant or e-commerce website:
- Legal notices enable the public to identify the website operator.
- General terms and conditions of sale or use are mandatory if you sell products or services via your website. They guarantee legal certainty for the public.
- Cookie management and GDRP policies must also be mentioned if you use cookies or process personal data.
All this information is mandatory and can lead to heavy fines if not included on your website. Our teams can help you draw them up or check compliance.
Presence on social networks
Copyright
In the same way as for a website, you cannot reproduce a non-rights-free work on social networks. Conversely, your content can be protected provided it is original.
Our teams can help you enforce your rights and/or defend you in the event of a dispute.
Relationships with content creators
Today, more and more companies call on the services of influencers to feed their social networks, increase their presence and notoriety and boost sales. In principle, these practices must be supervised to avoid unpleasant surprises. Paid partnerships must also be identified as such.
We can assist you in drafting collaboration contracts and in all your relationships with third parties whose content appears on your social networks.
Watch
In addition, it is becoming crucial to monitor your brands on social networks to ensure that unauthorized reproductions are not available online, which could infringe your rights, damage your reputation or create confusion with your products or services.
