Copyright for the Good
The attitude to the "copywriting" in the last decade has become extremely acute and negative. In many ways, it is justified, because they behave simply disgusting. Many giggled maliciously when they found out about the Apple Company and the Chinese, who registered the ipad brand in the 2000th year. Or look askance at one mustache uncle, who overlaid tribute blanks. Actually, the reputation is quite deserved - I still don’t really understand how exactly the process of meeting the “unprotected” authors and the money collected will take place.
However, there is a sense in copyright, let's imagine the situation:
You had a brilliant idea, you embodied it in a startup, together with a familiar designer, you drew a website, a logo, a slogan - in general, a full cycle. What turned out looks adult, presentable, “vebdvanolno” and just fine. The startup starts to bring the first income, advertisers begin to line up in the queue ... and it seems like it's a success, BUT!
On one “wonderful” day, people call you and ask if you want to buy your own startup from them, or rather, not a startup itself, but a company name, logo, slogan, domain, and so on. Even the sum is called. You hang up (or send them somewhere and hang up), think about it, but blame everything on scammers or idiots. Then a letter may come to you, or it may not arrive, then a statement of claim comes to you. The lawsuit says that you illegally use objects of copyright, and for this they want money from you (the amount is already more than voiced by telephone, plus state fees, plus expenses for a representative, etc.).
Whether you go to court, whether you ignore it - you will receive a decision in which (depending on the adequacy / competence / subjective opinion / legislation) the amount is indicated and this amount you will have to pay to these same people.
A very unpleasant and stupid situation, however, from the point of view of the law, it is quite logical and correct.
You just did not bother to register the intellectual property you created, and enterprising people did it for you, got the documents (on quite legal grounds) and decided to protect the rights given to them by law.
It is regrettable, but to prove that yours is precisely yours, and not evil uncles, you will need to be completely absurd and strict in the laws of the Russian Federation. You can find witnesses, show notarized screenshots, convince that all this is YOUR, only here enterprising people will have documents, and they will say that all this is theirs.
')
To avoid such a development from the very beginning of your activity, use the law:
I'll start with the basics, namely with the domain. The vast majority of startups use a bunch of "domain = product."
So first of all you need to secure the domain!
In accordance with part 4 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the domain name is not included in the list of objects recognized as intellectual property. Moreover, there is no legal definition of a domain name in the legislation of the Russian Federation. Is that article. 1484 GKRF establishes that one of the ways to use the exclusive right to a registered trademark is to use it as a means of individualization on the Internet, in particular, in a domain name.
Do you feel the priority setting? First registered sign, and then domain.
Those. a situation where you registered the benderrodrigez.ru domain, and the evil uncles of Benderrodrigez, and then write a statement to the registrar, who without hesitation, deprives you of the right to use the domain name on the grounds that you illegally use its trademark (brand name) in the name of your website is more than real.
Of course, you can then dispute such a decision for a long time, prove that you were the first, and the uncles appeared later. In general, it is unfair competition. You can even prove that everything was just like that! Only now it will take a year and a half.
Well, the fact that our court has two cardinally opposing positions on this matter does not add to your peace of mind either.
Conclusion - protect your domain! And it is better to register a legal entity or individual entrepreneur and register a trademark in due course. There are also exotic, and at the same time, doubtfully working methods - for example, send yourself a registered (with a notification, so that you can) a letter, the letter will contain all your logos and stuff, certified (or not) extract from whois, and other things that come to your mind. Such a letter can then be opened in court. Only here this method is very doubtful, and although it works in America and other countries with a developed law. In the snow-covered RF, no one will give you guarantees.
I’ll emphasize snow cover - because if you own a domain in zones other than .ru, then your life will be much calmer.
The situation is different.
There is a domain, a startup is working, money is coming ... and suddenly! A clone appears. With similar functionality, similar design and a very similar address. I do not talk about phishing type "fkontakte.ru" and other frauds. Just an example of unfair competition.
The safest would be to register a logo, and as a trademark. Registering a logo as a trademark greatly increases the means and chances of protecting the copyright holder. If applied to a logo (i.e., the logo is registered as an image), competitors may use a similar logo drawn by another artist, then using a similar trademark will be a violation of the law.
However, if the situation has already developed, but you could not / did not register there were several other ways to protect. For example, to assure the site of a notary and go to court with a lawsuit against offenders or go to the police or hoster, or you can do it all together. The best part is that you can earn up to 5,000,000 rubles. (the amount will be determined at the discretion of the court).
Just before such actions - stock up on evidence! Sources, witnesses, letters from the hoster (paper!), Hayrezy photos, etc., which can prove to the court that YOU are the rightful copyright holder.
So. In this article I outlined a couple of legitimate ways to protect myself from the evil uncle, whom I mentioned at the beginning. Of course, in order for the described story to occur, it requires a confluence of many factors: ignoring your deliberately unlawful demands, incompetence and unwillingness of the court to understand the matter, well, just bad luck. However, no one will give any guarantees that this will not happen to you. Cybersquatting has long been commonplace, but the reverse process is only gaining momentum. By investing in something effort and money, take care of your own safety.
If there is a desire from the community, I’m quite ready to describe all the relevant procedures in more detail.
However, there is a sense in copyright, let's imagine the situation:
You had a brilliant idea, you embodied it in a startup, together with a familiar designer, you drew a website, a logo, a slogan - in general, a full cycle. What turned out looks adult, presentable, “vebdvanolno” and just fine. The startup starts to bring the first income, advertisers begin to line up in the queue ... and it seems like it's a success, BUT!
On one “wonderful” day, people call you and ask if you want to buy your own startup from them, or rather, not a startup itself, but a company name, logo, slogan, domain, and so on. Even the sum is called. You hang up (or send them somewhere and hang up), think about it, but blame everything on scammers or idiots. Then a letter may come to you, or it may not arrive, then a statement of claim comes to you. The lawsuit says that you illegally use objects of copyright, and for this they want money from you (the amount is already more than voiced by telephone, plus state fees, plus expenses for a representative, etc.).
Whether you go to court, whether you ignore it - you will receive a decision in which (depending on the adequacy / competence / subjective opinion / legislation) the amount is indicated and this amount you will have to pay to these same people.
A very unpleasant and stupid situation, however, from the point of view of the law, it is quite logical and correct.
You just did not bother to register the intellectual property you created, and enterprising people did it for you, got the documents (on quite legal grounds) and decided to protect the rights given to them by law.
It is regrettable, but to prove that yours is precisely yours, and not evil uncles, you will need to be completely absurd and strict in the laws of the Russian Federation. You can find witnesses, show notarized screenshots, convince that all this is YOUR, only here enterprising people will have documents, and they will say that all this is theirs.
')
To avoid such a development from the very beginning of your activity, use the law:
I'll start with the basics, namely with the domain. The vast majority of startups use a bunch of "domain = product."
So first of all you need to secure the domain!
In accordance with part 4 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the domain name is not included in the list of objects recognized as intellectual property. Moreover, there is no legal definition of a domain name in the legislation of the Russian Federation. Is that article. 1484 GKRF establishes that one of the ways to use the exclusive right to a registered trademark is to use it as a means of individualization on the Internet, in particular, in a domain name.
Do you feel the priority setting? First registered sign, and then domain.
Those. a situation where you registered the benderrodrigez.ru domain, and the evil uncles of Benderrodrigez, and then write a statement to the registrar, who without hesitation, deprives you of the right to use the domain name on the grounds that you illegally use its trademark (brand name) in the name of your website is more than real.
Of course, you can then dispute such a decision for a long time, prove that you were the first, and the uncles appeared later. In general, it is unfair competition. You can even prove that everything was just like that! Only now it will take a year and a half.
Well, the fact that our court has two cardinally opposing positions on this matter does not add to your peace of mind either.
Conclusion - protect your domain! And it is better to register a legal entity or individual entrepreneur and register a trademark in due course. There are also exotic, and at the same time, doubtfully working methods - for example, send yourself a registered (with a notification, so that you can) a letter, the letter will contain all your logos and stuff, certified (or not) extract from whois, and other things that come to your mind. Such a letter can then be opened in court. Only here this method is very doubtful, and although it works in America and other countries with a developed law. In the snow-covered RF, no one will give you guarantees.
I’ll emphasize snow cover - because if you own a domain in zones other than .ru, then your life will be much calmer.
The situation is different.
There is a domain, a startup is working, money is coming ... and suddenly! A clone appears. With similar functionality, similar design and a very similar address. I do not talk about phishing type "fkontakte.ru" and other frauds. Just an example of unfair competition.
The safest would be to register a logo, and as a trademark. Registering a logo as a trademark greatly increases the means and chances of protecting the copyright holder. If applied to a logo (i.e., the logo is registered as an image), competitors may use a similar logo drawn by another artist, then using a similar trademark will be a violation of the law.
However, if the situation has already developed, but you could not / did not register there were several other ways to protect. For example, to assure the site of a notary and go to court with a lawsuit against offenders or go to the police or hoster, or you can do it all together. The best part is that you can earn up to 5,000,000 rubles. (the amount will be determined at the discretion of the court).
Just before such actions - stock up on evidence! Sources, witnesses, letters from the hoster (paper!), Hayrezy photos, etc., which can prove to the court that YOU are the rightful copyright holder.
So. In this article I outlined a couple of legitimate ways to protect myself from the evil uncle, whom I mentioned at the beginning. Of course, in order for the described story to occur, it requires a confluence of many factors: ignoring your deliberately unlawful demands, incompetence and unwillingness of the court to understand the matter, well, just bad luck. However, no one will give any guarantees that this will not happen to you. Cybersquatting has long been commonplace, but the reverse process is only gaining momentum. By investing in something effort and money, take care of your own safety.
If there is a desire from the community, I’m quite ready to describe all the relevant procedures in more detail.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/134751/
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