How to deal with copyright infringement - website copying

With many businesses and organisations presenting themselves on the Internet it is unsurprising that copying by others, especially by competitors is not uncommon.

Essentially the copying that occurs is as a result of an infringer taking advantage of the original copyright owner/author’s labour and effort. It is all too easy to ‘cut and paste’ the text, pictures and layouts of a website and utilise such for themselves. Often such flagrant copying smacks in the face of the time and consideration taken by the original author to produce such work in the first place.

However this is an unlawful activity protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The Work

The main criterion that an owner/author will need to prove to a court in the event of an infringement claim will be:

1. Ownership and originality of the work.

This can be the text, pictures, photographs, logos (and other designs) layouts and tables, recordings, broadcasts, etc that have been created independently by the author/owner. In order to demonstrate this you will be required to:
 

• Produce evidence that the work was created on a date that precedes the date of the work you claim infringes your copyright. A useful method will be to have an independent party verify the date the work was created (eg: Copyright Bank Service). Alternatively the work may have been commissioned from a third party, which can be substantiated through a commission agreement/contract and that third party’s own resources will contain the necessary priority date sought.

• Demonstrate that the work is original and created independently from any other source. You will need to show how the final version of your work was created, via preliminary work, research, prototypes, mock-ups, etc.

• Ensure that your work is not likely to be considered as common-place or industry standard or is ‘excluded matter’ (eg: immoral, misleading or other work considered so on grounds of public policy)

It is essential that you obtain good copy of that material you consider has been copied from your website. Transferring files onto computer hard-drive and CD and taking screenshots recorded on documents will assist in securing material that can be at least compared with your work to assess the extent of copying and substantial copying that has taken place.

Other Intellectual Property Rights (‘IPR’)

Do not overlook the possibility that your website contains designs, logos and pictorial elements that may embody other IPR such as trade mark rights and design rights.

Remedy

It is not always a requirement for you to assert your rights before a court. Many of the leading and respected website hosting and Internet companies are aware of infringing activities and have effective policies in place. Provided that you are able to satisfy the requirements (often a letter from a lawyer is sufficient) the infringing website will be removed and taken down from the Internet. This is a very immediate, practical and commercial solution.

Your Claim

In the event that you have a sufficient cause of action against an individual or organisation that has copied your website you will be entitled to bring a claim before the court at County Court level. This assists claimants with costs that are significantly lower than those associated with the High Court.

In addition there may also be a claim for the tort of ‘passing off’ where a competitor has used a copy of your website to give consumers the wrong impression that you have another website or you use the infringer as an authorised and licensed distributor of your goods and services.

The Internet

Whilst it is acknowledged that the Internet can be an effective tool to market your goods and services to a wider and ever increasing market, it too can be used by unscrupulous third parties to benefit from your hard work and effort, as well as depriving you of further custom and recognition in the market-place.

This article was written by Jason Lysandrides - Lawdit Solicitors.This article does not constitute legal advice and is for guidance purposes only