Intellectual property when participating in e-commerce

Intellectual property protects the legitimate rights and interests of owners of trademarks, copyrights, inventions and designs, creating an important premise for the field of e-commerce, where commercial products are Intellectual property is easily accessible. So what are the issues of intellectual property when participating in e-commerce?

1. What is e-commerce?

E-commerce has different names: E-commerce, E-comm or EC. This is the activity of buying and selling goods or services on internet platforms and computer networks. E-commerce activities are operated based on a number of technologies on electronic money transfer, supply chain management, order processing system, data collection system…

Currently, e-commerce is developing extremely fast because of the benefits it brings in accessing customer sources, preferential products, and the transaction process is quick and convenient. So in today’s digital space age, most businesses and individuals involved in business are trying to promote the development of this e-commerce field. Some popular e-commerce activities such as transaction, purchase and sale, order, advertisement, delivery, product marketing, etc.

2. Intellectual property relations for e-commerce

The special feature of the e-commerce system compared to other commercial systems is that it often involves the buying and selling of products and services based on intellectual property rights and licensing of intellectual property rights. A typical example that we often see can be paid for ringtones, pictures, software from online stores… All are transacted through e-commerce and intellectual property is the main factor. create product value.

Regarding the security of products sold in e-commerce, it is very important because of its high value that intellectual property products are currently one of the most targeted objects. The protection of intellectual property objects is extremely important to prevent infringements from third parties.

In addition, intellectual property is also a prerequisite for creating e-commerce products such as systems, software, designs, ICs, routers, user interfaces, trademarks, etc. are products of intellectual property that need to be protected according to the provisions of law

E-commerce can also rely on intellectual property licensing agreements. The reason is that when creating a product, there are many different stages, and each stage has its own technologies and even some stages are difficult or impossible to perform. Therefore, for some businesses, they choose to hire another party to conduct or share that technology for themselves through licensing contracts.

Ultimately, the value of an e-commerce-based business exists largely in the form of intellectual property. Thus, it can be said that in order to be able to value an e-commerce business, whether that business has protected their intellectual property rights is a decisive and extremely important factor. The same is true for technology businesses when intellectual property is much more valuable than tangible material value, which can be expressed through trademarks, patents, software, names. domains, databases, etc.

3. Intellectual property issues related to domain name selection and registration

Domain names or internet addresses are commonly used to search and access websites. For example, the domain name “ipvietnam.gov.vn” is used to access the website of the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam at https://ipvietnam.gov.vn/ . Over a long period of use, a domain name can also become the identity of the business and in some cases may lead to a conflict with the trademark. Therefore, when choosing a domain name, pay attention that it is not identical or similar to the trademark of another business.

Choosing a domain name is now an extremely important factor for businesses, which can affect their business activities. There are many options in choosing a domain name, it is possible to choose a domain name that is recognized on the global network of the World Wide Web. Your business domain name can be registered from any of a number of top-level domain names (TLDs) or a selection of generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) such as .com, .org or .info. A business can also conduct a selection of specialized and limited top-level domain names if it qualifies such as: .aero for transportation and aviation businesses or .biz for businesses Commerce. Businesses can also register their domain names under the country’s top-level domain code (ccTLD), such as: .vn for Vietnam, .cn for China, .us for the US, .ch for Switzerland…

Depending on where it’s registered, you can choose between a widely used generic name or a highly distinguishing domain name so users can distinguish it and remember it as your business. easy. Especially for some countries, domain names can also be protected as trademarks as long as it meets the conditions of distinctiveness.

When an enterprise chooses a domain name that is not a trademark of another individual or organization, especially for a well-known trademark, this is also considered an infringement of intellectual property, also known as “” domain name misappropriation”. To avoid unnecessary risks, before registering a domain name, businesses can look up the database on the web to determine whether your domain name selection is a registered trademark at a certain location. other country or not. Enterprises can access Wipo’s database to be able to perform this lookup

If it is discovered that a third party is using your trademark as a domain name, a simple procedure can be carried out, whereby an expert will determine whether it is an infringement and whether to claim payment. the domain name or not. Information on the dispute resolution policy can be found at http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains.

4. intellectual property when building websites

One of the basic elements of e-commerce is the design and functionality of the website. When designing and building a website, the first thing to keep in mind is whether you own the presentation and content and issues related to intellectual property rights on the website. Probably not, but it’s not a big deal yet. The most important thing is to know what you own, what rights you use and what is not yours and that you do not have the right to use. If you use a consulting firm or specialist to design the website, check the terms regarding ownership and intellectual property rights in the contract. Who owns the design and content in the web? Please check the exact obligations of the company and must ensure that during the operation of the website does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third parties.

If you are using Internet databases, software, search engines or technical tools licensed from another company, check the terms of the license agreement to see who will own the system, whether you are allowed to make modifications to it, and who will own the modifications. Make sure you get the contract in writing and have it checked by your attorney before you sign it, and before you start designing or modifying or building the website.

You need a written license (also known as a license agreement, license or agreement) to use any images, video, music, sound, artwork or software, etc. owned by someone else. Because you see them on the Internet doesn’t mean they are in the public domain. You may have to pay to be allowed to use the above items. In some countries, you will need to contact a collective management association or artists’ association to obtain a license. Do not distribute or post on your website any content or music that is not yours, unless you have written permission from the owner for their distribution over the Internet.

Be careful when linking to other websites, links are an effective e-commerce tool and a useful service to your customers, but in many countries there is no clear regulation. about when and how you may use the links. The safest way is to ask and get permission from other websites before setting up a link, especially when you “deep link”, that is, link to a page of another website that the site is not linking to. that’s not the homepage

Site structure building is a much more controversial undertaking than linking, it means incorporating parts of other websites into your site as part of your site. You should always get written permission before doing this

5. Protection of intellectual property rights in cyberspace

In the past few years, we have come across more often cases related to the illegal use of intellectual property products such as works of literature, music, pictures and places. One can often come across these violations on the internet. Therefore, cyberspace is a very vulnerable place for intellectual property products, and protection is essential, even for website design.

The protection of intellectual property rights on the internet can be done in many different ways. The registration of intellectual property copyright protection at a competent state agency to record ownership is the first thing to do. However, cyberspace is a complicated place with many different components, protecting your products is also something that we must pay attention to, always clearly specifying your notes through a notice. or an ownership guide that these works, the viewer is allowed and is not allowed to do with them. For example, viewers are allowed to download or viewers are not allowed to distribute or download content. In addition, it is possible to develop programs to guarantee the protection of intellectual property rights.

Some of the commonly applied methods today are the application of technical tools to protect content on the internet such as watermarking, encryption or creating instructions and tracking. The protection of property rights in cyberspace can also be done through management systems to control the use of content.

The above are some issues of intellectual property in e-commerce for reference when businesses engage in business activities, set domain names, design websites and protect intellectual property in cyberspace.