Now that you have an active website and ezine, you should be
concerned about protecting it! Let's face it, your website
is wide open to anyone with an itchy right clicking finger
and an Internet connection.

Protecting your intellectual property and website content
is not as difficult as most people think. I imagine you
put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into your website's
planning, concept, and creation. Correct? Why not take an
extra couple of hours to protect it from all the Internet
slime that's waiting around the corner to steal it?

Your first step in your security checklist should be a trip
to "10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained." You may find
many of your questions answered here.
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

Once you get the feel for the kind of protection that's
readily available to you, it's time to get serious!

All the copyright, patent and trademark information you need
can be found through the following resources.

Congressional Web Site
http:/ homas.loc.gov/home homas2.html
http://www.uspto.gov

Copyright & Fair Use at the Stanford University
Libraries http://fairuse.stanford.edu/

Also be sure to visit the World Intellectual Property
Organization at: http://www.wipo.int

Copyright Office
http://www.loc.gov
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright

Here is another excellent website on copyrights. I am sure
you can dig up trademark and patent info here as well as a
ton of other free advice. The name suits the site well:
http://freeadvice.com/law/570us.htm

Here is a popular patent search system
http://sunsite.unc.edu/patents/intropat.html

You can also contact General Information Services and
request the Information Dissemination Organization's US
Patent and Trademark Catalog (ask for it by name). This
is a free catalog and contains detailed information on all
aspects of copyright protection. 1-800-786-9199

You can request trademark and patent sales information
from 1-800-972-6382
ptcs@uspto.gov

Take time out today and see what is available to you. Why
wait until you are a victim? Take the time to research the
above resources. Many people do not realize that the
copyright registration fee is only $20. Keep in mind that
federal trademark and patent registration fees are much
higher, but a copyright may be all that you require to
securely document your work.

Federal trademarks can be very expensive, but in some states -
Tennessee, for instance - you can register your trademark
with the state for as little as $5. This protects you from others
within your state stealing your information, and should be
done even for company names, logos, slogans, etc. Contact your
Secretary of State's office in your state capitol for more
information.

The US Patent and Trademark Office placed its trademark database
online. Now you can search the database directly at.
Do you know how expensive a patent search can be?
Do it here free: http://www.uspto.gov mdb/

I stress to you once again - DO NOT PUT IT OFF. The longer
you wait, the less likely you will be to bother doing it at
all. Your copyright registration will be good for many years
and only takes a little time to complete.

About the Author
David Seitz - CEO Virtual Imagination Inc.
Published by: Virtual Imagination Inc.
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