LEARNING POINT 4: Protecting your website

1. What elements of your website can be protected

Before we talk about protection measures, lets first have a look at what parts of a website
can be protected by intellectual property (IP) rights. In fact, there are many elements in a
website that can be protected by different types of IP. For example:
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(1) New technologies systems, search engines or other technical Internet tools may
be protected by patents or utility models;
(2) Software can be protected by copyright and/or patents;
(3) Your website design is likely to be protected by copyright;
(4) Creative website content, such as written material, photographs, graphics, music
and videos, may be protected by copyright;
(5) Databases can be protected by copyright or by sui generis database laws;
(6) Business names, logos, product names, domain names and other signs
posted on your website may be protected as trademarks;

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(7) Computergenerated graphic symbols, screen displays, graphic user interfaces

(GUIs) and even webpages may be protected by industrial design law;

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(8) Hidden aspects of your website (such as confidential graphics, source code,
object code, algorithms, programs or other technical descriptions, data flow charts,
logic flow charts, user manuals, data structures, and database contents) can be
protected by trade secret law.