Attorneys

• Neil F. Siegel (1958-2007)

When you take your business to the World Wide Web by developing and posting an Internet web site, you instantly have the potential to reach new markets and new customers worldwide. Creating a web site is not without risk; however, these risks can be minimized by carefully considering practical and legal concerns specific to the Internet.

Many of these issues can be fundamental to establishing your online business. For example, have you secured and protected trademark rights in your domain name? If not, has someone else? Did you secure ownership of important aspects of your web site (both design and functionality) in your agreement with your web site design firm? Does your web site employ proprietary methods or processes which may be patentable (or which may infringe upon patents held by others) — Your site may display third party trademarks for products that you sell, or it may contain links to third party sites. Do you have written permission to use these trademarks? Depending upon the nature of your links, linking agreements may be advisable. What steps have you taken to create enforceable online contracts-with respect to the terms of both the use of your site, as well as purchases through your site? Have you informed visitors to your site of your policy regarding data collection and use? Web site privacy and data security are currently hot topics, and you do not want to find yourself on the wrong side of the debate.

These are only a few examples of many issues that you may unknowingly encounter when moving your business to the Internet. The e-business and Internet lawyers at Cohen & Grigsby have developed a comprehensive system for analyzing a web site and identifying its specific potential legal risks. They can perform an analysis and report for a fixed fee based on the size and complexity of the web site.  For more information, please e-mail Neil Siegel at nsiegel@cohenlaw.com or Mark Stabile at mstabile@cohenlaw.com, or contact your regular Cohen & Grigsby attorney.