Protecting your Content on Social Media

Your social media content is protected under the existing intellectual property laws:

• Trade Secret (protects something that gives value to a business from not being known),

• Trademark (protects words, phrases, symbols, or designs that identify the source of goods or services) and

• Copyright (protects original works of authorship such as drawings, photographs, and written copy).

To lock down trade secrets, make sure your employment documents are clear about company ownership of social media accounts and make sure you have the logins and passwords.

To lock down trademarks, consider registering your brand names and logos, and making sure other people aren’t using them to siphon your customers. You are allowed to truthfully use other people’s trademarks to advertise your goods/services (We sell Levi’s jeans; We repair Ford trucks; We are certified Microsoft resellers) or to voice your opinion (United Breaks Guitars).

What you can’t do is use a trademark that is substantially similar to someone else’s that the customers are likely to be