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Woolley & Co E-Zine

Tips and ideas for keeping your business on the right side of the law

Welcome. This month's E-zine offers advice to ensure your website stays on the right side of the law. There are also tips on making effective contracts and another special offer for reader from Chelverton House Ltd, specialist providers of documentation services to the IT and technology sector.

We welcome your feedback – if there is any particular legal issue you’d like to see covered send the details through to marketing@e-lawfirm.co.uk.

Andrew Woolley

Andrew Woolley, Principal, Woolley & Co

Making your Website Legal

All too often companies jump on the e-commerce band wagon without being fully aware of their legal responsibilities. There are some very simple, but important, pieces of information that must be included on every website that is offering items for sale – failure to include these details means breaking the law and risking fines or worse – site closure.

And getting it right is actually very simple – the following details must be included on your site and must be available before a purchase is made. The details must be in an easily found place and should include:

your full business name
e-mail address
full postal address
Vat number
company registration number
your membership of any authorising body (such as the Law Society if you are a solicitor!)
main details of the goods
the price and how to pay and how long the price is available
delivery details
cost of ordering the things via the web if different from off-line
information about after sales things such as guarantees, service etc

For more information on the impact of the law on e-commerce and trade on-line visit www.e-lawfirm.co.uk.

SPECIAL OFFER - Multi-purpose Documents

Chelverton House Ltd (CHL), a specialist provider of documentation services to the IT and technology sector is offering Woolley & Co E-zine readers a complimentary introduction to multi-purpose documents. Provide a Word document of up to 10 pages and CHL will format it and convert it into both an Acrobat portable document and an HTML version (web or Help) for you. If you’d like to know more see www.chelverton.com, contact them on sales@chelverton.com or telephone 0208 788 7458.

The ins and outs of Domain names

A URL or domain name is critical to the success of your on-line business. Getting and protecting your on-line name isn’t a mystery but there are some things to be aware of:

Registration
URLs are allocated on a first come, first served basis. They can be effective marketing tools in their own right and it is sensible to get that which reflects your business name as soon as possible. Someone may have got there first. Unlike trade marks, there is not much of a regulatory system. If the domain name is being used in good faith, you are unlikely to be able to complain about it and get it back for you to use. If you’ve got a registered trade mark that pre-dates the domain name (and sometimes unregistered rights) you may be able to pursue the owner through the Courts. You might alternatively try dispute resolution procedures which can be quicker and cheaper.

Cyber squatting
This is when someone takes a domain name without an intention to use it in good faith, for our purposes (i.e. to use it properly in their business). If the name you want is being used in this way then dispute procedures should be used. Really, the answer is to “get in fast”!

Got the name, now I can use it?
Not necessarily. If you register a name that is someone else’s trade mark you may well not be able to use it. There is also a complex problem called “passing off” — if you appear to the public to be another business which has established a “name” or “reputation” you may well have a major problem. Get your lawyer to check trade marks etc before registering.

Renewal
You have the responsibility to renew the use of the domain name with whomever you’ve registered it. Different ISPs have different rules about this. In the past many would remind you and then remind you again but the major UK provider has recently indicated it will no longer do this. To say that (especially if your website becomes heavily visited) this is a crucial issue is an understatement! Be careful.

CONTRACT TIPS: Making a Contract

A contract is generally made when someone agrees to do something for someone else for a fee. The fee is called the “consideration”. The problems arise over “offer and acceptance”. If you say to someone “I offer to do x for you” and they say “I accept” then (subject to the fact there was an intention to make a contract) that is a contract.

Is the world that simple? We all know it isn’t! Often, of course, someone will reply, “I’ll accept if you do y as well”, that is not an “acceptance”, that is a counter-offer. This is crucially important, because until an offer has been accepted there is no contract and as such either party can get out of the deal.

Woolley advice: always make sure you obtain acceptance of your offer, in writing. Visit www.e-lawfirm.co.uk for more information about contracts and terms of business.

Calling All Lawyers

At Woolley & Co we’re always interested to hear from commercially minded lawyers. For more details on our current vacancies visit www.e-lawfirm.co.uk or email Andrew Woolley at aw@e-lawfirm.co.uk and tell us what you have to offer a firm like ours.

To find out more about these and other legal issues visit the Woolley & Co website at www.e-lawfirm.co.uk.

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