The field of intellectual property, as important as it may be, is more often than not looked over by the entities that carry out their activity in the field of e-commerce. The reason why intellectual property is crucial for the field of e-commerce, is because by the sale of products and services, generally have important IP implications.

The connection between IP and e-commerce

IP is one of the areas with a great involvement when it comes to e-commerce. For an order to be efficiently received by a consumer, it is required software, computer interfaces, chips, networks, huge databases, but also content for each site. All these examples are nothing but forms of IP, which should be protected accordingly. The necessity of having a trademark, which represents a link between the consumer and the seller, should, of course, not be excluded from this subject. Through a trademark, consumers could understand your business and could easily associate certain products or services with those offered by you. Therefore, it is essential to have protection for your trademark, in order to avoid any infringement cases.

How can we practically protect our business?

How can you protect these forms of IP, especially considering that most businesses have moved, or are considering moving online to prevent the spread of the most recent coronavirus outbreak and, at the same time, businesses try, with all their efforts, to minimize the economic effects caused by the virus in order to save their business and, therefore, make their products available in a different way, the online one. This should be done with the advice of an IP specialist, for cost and efficiency reasons. Among the most important strategies for IP protection we would like to mention the following:

– Registration of the trademark, so that it will not be subject to any infringement case;

– Obtaining a domain name that reflects the trademark or even a feature of the business you represent. If the domain coincides with the brand you want to protect, it would be advisable to get that domain name. Currently, there are many cases in which different businesses have lost their domain name to other businesses that produce and market similar products;

– If the company you represent owns trade secrets, make sure the people in charge with this information have signed confidentiality documents and non-disclosure agreements;

Once you have obtained these rights over these IP assets, it would be advisable to make this information available to third parties. You can, therefore, indicate with the use of your trademark the symbols: ®, TM, SM, so that people know that those marks are protected and should refrain from using them. Lastly, you should control the use of content on your site through online agreements or encryptions.

Last considerations

Since we’re all going through delicate times, globally, issues such as those in the IP domain may tend to be overlooked. However, adopting an efficient strategy from this point of view can represent an important advantage in the future, especially in terms of costs. A well-thought out  IP strategy, developed over time, it will prove to be very financially efficient in the long run.