INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

The hottest topic on the web today is the question of who owns what. A lot of people who use the web think that because viewing a website is free that they have a right to use what is displayed on the website free of charge for whatever purposes they choose.

The bad news for those thinking like this is that copyright and intellectual property rights (IPR) apply to everything that is published on the web. A recent judgment in the High Court of Australia set a precedent that information is considered to be published where it is read. You need to consider what this means to your business.

Some of the terms of business relating to our business mean that we own the IPR of everything we produce unless it is agreed otherwise at the start of the contract. Some people do not even bother to read our terms.

Common law means that IPR applies to everything published on the web. We therefore recognise the IPR of everyone whose website we borrow content from.

For our customers, a hidden and unvalued service that we provide is that we will seek to manage the IPR of the property that they entrust to us. This may mean seeking permission to use a piece of text or image from another website on something we have developed for our customer.

A nine year old child asked me recently what it mean by "a stitch in time saves nine". I thought hard about how to relate this to the thinking of a 9 year old. As I pondered this issue it occurred to me that this principle applies to all aspects of life and especially issues like IPR. Most people are quick to copy content from other's websites thinking that because it is on the web it is free. We hope we can advise our customers the best way to avoid such situations is to ask permission first - a simple process of "a stitch in time saves nine".

Please discuss your Intellectual Property Management issues with us before copying the IPR of someone else - we might help save you "a stitch in time".