Your website

Your website can be a powerful business tool, a low-cost way of reaching customers and potential customers around the world. At the same time, it can expose you to a wide range of legal issues – from failing to follow basic UK website legal requirements to finding you have inadvertently broken website law overseas.

Domain registration

You’ll want to register appropriate domain names for your website – typically based on the name of your business, product or service. To get extra protection for your domain names, you may want to register these names as trade marks.

There’s a possibility that domain names you would like to use are already being used – either legitimately or by someone hoping to cash in on your good name. If you feel that a domain name you want is being used inappropriately, you may be able to take legal action to recover it. This kind of intellectual property dispute can often be dealt with using a domain name dispute resolution procedure - but you should take legal advice.

Website design

A clear agreement with your website designer helps reduce the risk of disagreements and extra costs. The agreement should set out what is required – such as timescales, and fees, for example.

You should insist that the designer assigns design right and copyright to you. This means that the designer no longer owns the intellectual property in the site, allowing you to continue using and modifying it as you wish. You should also ask the designer to confirm that the website design does not breach anyone else’s intellectual property rights – for example, by using copyright images without permission.

It makes business sense to ensure that the website is designed to be accessible for people with a disability such as impaired sight. This is a legal requirement for websites providing a service such as product information or sales.

Website content

As with the design, the content of your website needs to respect other people’s copyright. You should also take care to avoid offensive or defamatory content, and to keep the site’s content up-to-date. Bear in mind that website content could form part of an eventual sales contract if the customer relies on it.

If you are using your website for marketing and emarketing, you need to meet additional requirements such as ensuring that the content is not misleading and providing clear information on prices. If you sell online through the website, you also need to consider further issues covering e-commerce and distance selling.

It makes sense to include appropriate disclaimers and statements to limit your legal risk. For example, you may want to publish terms of use, a copyright statement and a privacy policy. If you are using the website to collect personal data, you must meet data protection requirements.

Website hosting

Most businesses use an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to host their website. Consider practical issues like the technical services you need, security and backup and the ISP’s reputation for reliability.

You should ensure that you have an appropriate website hosting contract. As well as terms such as the length of contract and cost, you should check what standards of service the ISP is committed to. Poor service – for example, a website that is unavailable for long periods – could have a significant commercial impact.