Legal Resources

Website Legals - Domain Names

Recent years have seen a number of court cases on cybersquatting. This is where a domain name is registered that uses brands or product trademarked names as the domain. The purpose of the registration is NOT for use as a website, but to ellicit large sums of money from the owners of the brand or product.

Just because a domain name is available, does not mean that it does not infringe a trademark somewhere.

• Search USA Trademarks
• Search Canada Trademarks
• Search UK Trademarks
• Search Australia Trademarks
• Search NZ Trademarks

Website Legals - Onsite Requirements

Google and other large search engines are becoming smarter in what they include in their ranking algorithm. Having online legals is important, not only for litigation prevention, but also SEO.

Online legals should include:

1. Disclosure Statement - tells who you are and what you do
2. Privacy Statement - explains what information you collect on the site visitor and what you do with any information you collect.
3. Acceptable Use Policy - a brief summary of what we expect from you when you are using our site
4. Conditions for Use of this Site - A full legal statement of normal commercial and consumer terms of use. A bit tricky this one, as even if you deem that continuing to read or use this site deems you to have accepted the Terms; this is not necessarily binding. So be careful of your terminology. A contract between two parties requires both offer and acceptance. Just because you offer something, such as a condition, does not mean that the visitor accepts it. But they would have a much harder time bringing charges against you if your terms are clearly stated on each page.

It's very important to understand the legal requirements if your site targets minors or those under the age of 13.

Requirements and laws vary from country to country so check your local sites.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer and this is not to be construed as legal advice. It is merely a guideline as to what legal aspects you need to consider when publishing online

A simple Google search will find a number of good sites offering free advice for your location.

One of my favourites is FreeAdvice.com

If your question has not already been covered, you can post a question on this site for free response.

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