The modern-day real estate professional is faced with many issues that deal with intellectual property and social media. Here are a few of things to consider:
1. Real Estate website - do you collect personal information online, such as mortgage information? Do you have a privacy policy in place? Does your website use images, pictures, slogans? This may raise various intellectual property issues such as copyright and trademark. Have you ensured there are no copyright violations on your websites, blogs, or other social media platforms? Do you have policies and procedures in place to make sure your agents are not infringing the intellectual property rights of others?
2. Trade Secrets - do you share or disclose corporate trade secrets with your agents? If so, do you have a trade secrets program in place that is designed to safeguard your trade secrets? Do you address intellectual property and trade secrets in your independent contractor agreements? What happens when your licensed individuals no longer work for you? Do they get to keep their websites and blogs? Can they take and use your customer lists or leads? Have you addressed this in a written agreement?
3. Do your or your licensed agents engage in social media marketing campaigns such as email blasts, internet advertising, pay-per-click? Do you comply with the DRE advertising rules and other applicable laws dealing with advertising?
4. Do your or your agents use viral video to try to attract new clients? Is someone illegally using your videos to promote their own business or using your copyright work in an infringing manner?
5. Are you illegally using another companies trade name, domain names etc. to market your business, for example, in keywords on a wordpress website? Is this legal?
6. Are you choosing names for products, or a company name or DBA that may be infringing on the name, or trademark of another company? Did you perform a detailed search before choosing your name or domain name? You would hate to invest all that time and money in marketing your company, only to find out someone else beat you to the name and they decide they want to sue to stop you. Have you considered this possibility?
7. Are you or your agents engaged in acts of libel, slander (defamation) on the internet, including on twitter, facebook, chat boards, or elsewhere? Have you addressed these potential issues in any written independent contractor agreement, or company policy handbook? These “digital defamation” issues can wreak havoc on your if faced with a lawsuit.
8. Do you routinely monitor the internet to see if there other companies are defaming your or your brand or your services? Are you dealing with issues or a complaint from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) that involve “reputation management.”
9. Do you have a policy in place for dealing with facebook ads, and other online ads?
10. Do you have a chief privacy officer able to respond to consumer complaints over data use, identity theft, etc?
These are just some of the issues that come to mind. If your company would like to engage an attorney seminar speaker to address these issues, and/or would like your contracts updated to deal with these types of issues, contact the law offices of Steven C. C. Vondran, with offices in California and Arizona at (877) 276-5084.
