Top Ten Legal Issues in Designing a Website

1.         Ensure organization’s ownership or license of all copyrights of Website including copyright in the logos, sounds, colors, text and names.

2.         Obtain protection against liability of information providers to the Website.

3.         Comply with foreign government Internet laws including intellectual property moral rights.

4.         Make sure that Website Designer grants organization a non-exclusive irrevocable license to software of Website.

5.         License Internet content including HTML links, frames, registered domain names and agreement with Web Designer that these licenses continue beyond any termination of agreement with this Designer.

6.         Form Legal agreement between organization and Web Designer on technical specifications of Website

7.         Form Web Host agreement to keep Web server updated with new software, patches and upgrades.

8.         Ensure that Web Host agreement includes specifications that include speed of connecting link between web server and Internet, minimum acceptable connection speed, the percentage of dedicated portion of available bandwidth to client’s website, and maximum response time to fix server connection problems.

9.         Maintain agreement between Web Designer and client organization that client holds rights to determine what constitutes contract conformance, what needs to be cured, tying of payments to stages of Web development and what conditions warrant an immediate termination of Web Designer’s contract.

10.        Insist that Web Designer sign Confidentiality Agreement between organization and Web Designer to protect any financial information, marketing information, or other proprietary information of organization from disclosure.