Establishing the Ground Rules: Utilize A Terms of Use Agreement To Protect Your Website Content

A well-crafted terms of use agreement is an important component of any company’s online presence. Basically, online business owners should use a Terms of Use Agreement to protect your website.

How a Terms of Use Agreement Works To Protect Your Website

Typically, such agreements first seek to protect the website operator’s content. Thus, within a terms of use agreement, the operator can inform users of how they may use the website and how they may not use a website. Further, if the website allows account registration, the agreement may include a termination clause, which permits the operator to terminate the account and ban the user from the site, typically at the operator’s complete discretion. A terms of use agreement may also limit the operator’s liability by disclaiming that the operator cannot be held liable for any errors found in the website’s content or by limiting liability to the amount that the user paid for the website’s services. It may disclaim warranties of fitness or merchantability that might otherwise apply to products that the website sells.

Finally, the terms of use agreement can determine the jurisdiction that will govern the interpretation and adjudication of the agreement. Typically, the jurisdiction should be where the law is favorable to the operator, where the operator is physically located, or where the operator’s attorneys are physically located.

Mutual Consent is Key in a Terms of Use Agreement to Protect Your Website

All of these website content clause components can be useful, but they are ultimately ineffective if they cannot be enforced. Therefore, the most important thing to remember is that mutual assent between the website operator and user should be present if a company wants its agreement to hold up in court.

Source: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/

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Klemchuk LLP is an Intellectual Property (IP), Technology, Internet, and Business law firm.  The firm offers comprehensive legal services including litigation and enforcement of all forms of IP as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights.  The firm also provides a wide range of technology, Internet, e-commerce, and business services including business planning, formation, and financing, mergers and acquisitions, business litigation, data privacy, and domain name dispute resolution. 

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