Protecting Your IP in the World of Social Media

We’re all aware of the great advantages to placing ourselves and our businesses online, but what are the dangers?

Our Internet Protocol (IP) is a number assigned to every host of a computer. Hacking occurs when a person enters a foreign IP and gains access to protected information, causing irreversible damage to a brand.

The time we put into establishing a presence on social media is too valuable not to protect. Here’s where our friend, Jonathan Aumonier-Ward from intellectual property firm, A J Park offers some handy advice.

“You need to do a risk-management evaluation. Do your research to see who is using your brand name and where.” Free sites that you can use are here and CheckUserNames.

If identical brand names exist in other locales on the World Wide Web, protecting your IP is best avoided.

“If the risk of getting your IP copied is small, run with the risk,” Jonathon believes it can always be addressed later, like in the case of start-up businesses where the future success of the business is unknown.

It is when companies start to gain a bigger presence online that they become in danger of being targeted.

Kiwi celeb, Dai Henwood, fell victim to Hell Pizza beinghacked last month. His Facebook, Twitter and cellphone was hacked countless times, and he’s not the only one.

The risk of copyright is another hot potato … The Berne Convention at least protects the rights of authors all over the world, including New Zealand.

So what are the key tips according to Jonathon to protecting your IP online:

• Keep a dated paper trail of items that you have written (online or not)

• Ensure the account login details to your online channels are kept secure so in the event of IP being compromised, you can prove authenticity

• Check the terms of service for the social media channels you upload content to e.g. when you load content on Facebook/Flickr be it copy, photos or other media files you are agreeing to a change in ownership i.e. Facebook/Flickr now own your IP

• If in doubt, get strategic advice from the professionals!

Written by Jess Miller