The New Legal Landscape for Event Industry Social Media Kathryn Carrier, Esq. © 2011 Katy Carrier

A New Frontier Social media has transformed the way we do business, bringing both added benefits and new challenges Today we are going to discuss how to navigate this new frontier in light of the legal implications, in order to protect and grow your business © 2011 Katy Carrier

A New Frontier We will discuss intellectual property rights such as trademark and copyright in conjunction with social media, new issues posed by Twitter and Facebook with respect to defamation of character, the recent Federal Trade Commission regulations on social media, as well as other legal issues pertaining to social media © 2011 Katy Carrier

Interactive Questions Do you have a blog for your business? (Yes or No) Do you have a Facebook account for your business? (Yes or No) Do you have a Twitter account for your business? (Yes or No) © 2011 Katy Carrier

An Overview of Intellectual Property in Conjunction with Social Media Trademarks Copyright © 2011 Katy Carrier

Trademarks A trademark is any unique word, symbol, name or device used in commerce to indentify and distinguish the goods of one seller from the goods of another Assets that can be protected by trademarks and service marks are business names, logos, taglines, product line names and packaging © 2011 Katy Carrier

Interactive Question Does your business have any trademarks registered with the US Trademark Office? (Yes or No) © 2011 Katy Carrier

Trademarks Trademarks can be registered on both the state and federal level You also start acquiring common law rights when you being actually using the mark, prior to registration But the law requires that you have a federal registration if you want to take action against another individual or business for infringing on your mark © 2011 Katy Carrier

Trademarks In order to successfully register your trademark with the USPTO, the mark must meet certain qualifications: – The mark must be unique – The mark must be distinctive – The mark must actually be in use © 2011 Katy Carrier

Trademarks Once you’ve obtained your federal registration, the burden is on you to protect and police your mark Once your mark is registered, you should use the ® symbol Prior to registration, you should use the ™ symbol You should always try to use your mark in the same way, without switching words © 2011 Katy Carrier

Trademarks Be sure to buy all of the domain names that are reasonably related to your mark If you need to recover a domain name from a cybersquatter or infringer, there is a court procedure as well as a streamlined alternative dispute resolution process © 2011 Katy Carrier

Copyright Copyright deals with the rights of an author or creator of an original work Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, facts, names, titles, slogans, procedures or methods Copyright only protects “original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression” Examples of “tangible mediums of expression” include photos, video recordings, audio recordings, written records, paintings and computer programs © 2011 Katy Carrier

Copyright The author or creator begins acquiring common law rights as soon as the work is fixed in one of the tangible mediums of expression You can begin using the © symbol immediately Copyright protection is afforded to photos, videos, website copy, marketing materials, logo designs, website designs With copyright, there is less of a race to federally register than with trademarks © 2011 Katy Carrier

Copyright But, like with trademark, the work must be registered in order to be able to pursue alleged copyright infringers Copyrights are registered with the United States Copyright Office It is important to ensure that you actually own works that are created for your business, such as your logo and other design work © 2011 Katy Carrier

Copyright You should run periodic checks online for infringement on the Internet You can use Copyscape.com to check for plagiarism of your website copy, or TinEye.com to search for unauthorized use of your photos So what do you do when you find out that someone is infringing on your copyrights? © 2011 Katy Carrier

Copyright The cease and desist letter process is similar to that for trademark infringement If the infringer ignores the cease and desist, you can then proceed in court, or if the infringement is online you can exercise your rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act The DMCA allows you to give notice to the hosting company of the infringing website, like Go Daddy, and they will take the infringing site down © 2011 Katy Carrier

Interactive Question Have you used the DMCA takedown process before? (Yes or No) © 2011 Katy Carrier

Copyright What if you are the one accused of copyright infringement, such as for using photos or copy on your blog? Do you have permission to use the copyrighted works? If not, does your use fall under the “fair use” exception to copyright infringement? Fair use applies to when a copyrighted work is used for certain, usually non-commercial, purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research © 2011 Katy Carrier

Copyright Fair use factors: – The purpose and character of the use – The nature of the copyrighted work – The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole – The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work © 2011 Katy Carrier

Copyright For real event photos, you need to also consider right of publicity concerns with respect to the clients and their guests Individuals have a right of publicity that allows them to control how their image is used commercially © 2011 Katy Carrier

Protecting Your Reputation Online This includes maintaining your intellectual property rights, and not infringing on the rights of others, like we just discussed with respect to trademark and copyright Also includes handling defamation, which includes slander and libel against you personally or against your business This is especially important now due to the nature of the Internet and social media © 2011 Katy Carrier

Protecting Your Reputation Online The passing along of false information that is stated as fact is called “defamation of character” Defamation is a general term that includes both slander and libel In order to qualify as defamation, the information must also: (1) Bring harm to either a person or an organization; and (2) Be told (in writing or verbally) to at least one other person than the victim © 2011 Katy Carrier

Protecting Your Reputation Online “Slander” is when the defamation is spoken “Libel” is when the defamation is in writing, which includes blogs, Twitter and Facebook You do not need not actually name the person or business explicitly to qualify as slander or libel if enough people are able to deduce the identity of the person or business being referenced © 2011 Katy Carrier

Federal Trade Commission Compliance The Federal Trade Commission has passed new regulations relating to endorsements, sponsorships and testimonials on blogs and other social media like Facebook and Twitter You can be fined by the FTC for up to $11,000 per occurrence © 2011 Katy Carrier

Terms of Use & Privacy Policy Both are an important element of your your blog They allow you to control your liability and responsibilities © 2011 Katy Carrier

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