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Branding
on the Internet
Abstract
Having your brand, or
other important and valuable information, on the Internet exposes
you to potential theft of your ideas, your work and your
identity. The Discussion below discusses this hard truth in
some detail and possible remedies for your protection.
Discussion
When you were a kid, you
probably saw some western movie where the bad guys rustled some
cattle and placed their brand over the existing brand making use of
the existing brand's design to mask their theft.
Well, welcome back to the
Wild West. Many of us do not realize how easy it is to borrow
someone else's information, copyright, brand, artwork, etc.
Literally, in a few second to a few minutes, a 'bad guy' can copy,
save and post onto the Internet, or other documentation, the work it
may have taken you hours, days or weeks to create.
The Internet thrives on
content creation, but your site will thrive on unique content
creation. What are you to do? If you create great and
unique content, you are inviting untold numbers to pilfer your hard
work and diminish the worth of your web site. If you do not
create great content, your web site is likely not to be found or
valued.
However, if having some
borrow your content, ideas, graphics, etc. was not bad enough, there
are other issues with protection of your concept, name and
brand. For many companies, some local, some multi-national,
there are many shadow sites created by disgruntled employees, former
employees or unhappy customers that, if using SEO, SEM and SEP may
actually displace, or at least compete with, the actual brand owner
for search engine placement.
Read
the Mystery of the Murderous Coke
As shown in our Case
Study about Coca-Cola® only one approach can really be taken to
help solve Coke's dilemma. In each situation, for each
organization, brand, etc. a different approach is likely. The
key is to be aware of what can happen to your good name and to act
to protect it. It is also important to remember that the
status quo only lasts for a few days at a time on the Internet.
Basic protection ideas
come in different forms. First and foremost is to guard your
search terms jealously. If a competitor is using your search
terms on their web site, that is an issue. If a competitor is
using your search terms in their PPC advertising, that is another
issue. Within your web site, you should always copyright your
web pages. This can be difficult as web sites tend to change
over time. To be most effective, you will want effective
Configuration Management. Within a Configuration Management
system, you will be able to track the changes to your web site and
therefore have a legitimate basis for making copyright claims should
the need arise.
Practical
methods of help to protect your identity, but not a complete
assurance against theft, is to use a variety of formats for your
content such that it cannot be read or cannot be right-clicked
on. There are many methods available, the choice of which
methods you should use depends on your overall web site structure,
page structure and the goals you want to accomplish with your web
site.
All Trademarks
are the property of their respective owners.
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