Practical Steps to Protecting Your Legal Aid Organization from Cyber Piracy

(Click here to print this protocol as a PDF.) See also: How to Take Action Against Cyber Piracy.

Every program will face issues with protecting its intellectual property. With the Internet, intellectual property is routinely threatened by cyber squatters posing as your legal aid organization to an unknowing user base. Mail and telephone book scams that feature “legal aid-like” entities offer equally deceptive practices to your client community.

While these protocols may not insure you against having to deal with such deceptive practices, they will minimize your exposure to them and prepare you for swift and effective response that will benefit your program and reduce client confusion. We recommend your program consider these simple protocols and adopt them as part of your administrative policies.

Protect your website. It is your online identity and storefront.

Most legal aid programs have strong name recognition in their communities. Even those that have recently changed their names are often still found under the generic term “legal aid”. Online users trying to find legal help will be hard-pressed to distinguish your program from deceptive counterparts, especially if name recognition is not applicable. A critical part of preventing cyber piracy practices is to protect your program’s website(s) and your statewide website.

Keep your domain name registration up-to-date. It is much easier to prevent problems than address them once revealed. Predatory groups seek out lapsed domain registrations to snatch up and hold hostage. Legal aid organizations can be susceptible to this threat if there is turnover in technology staff or other extenuating circumstances. To prevent your domain name from lapsing:

Keep all domain registration information among your organization’s important documents.
Make sure that the e-mail address provided to the organization with which you registered your domain will go to multiple parties within your organization. Many sites setup an admin email (i.e. admin@yoursite.org) that goes to multiple recipients, as a backup in case one person is not available. Additionally, consider setting up automatic renewal. That way, your organization will receive notification of the renewal and will need to take action only if the credit card or other method of payment is no longer valid.

Purchase popular variations of your domain name. The easiest way to deter a thief is to simply lock the door. The same is true for your online identity. To safeguard your identify, make sure your program takes steps to “close the door” on open domain names that are similar to yours.

Register all applicable names of your organization to prevent easy squatting. (Registering additional names can cost as little as $6 per name. You can use companies like 1and1 or Dotster for domain hosting that is affordable and easy.) Identify what URLs you currently own. Consider (and brainstorm) alternative names of those URLs that partners or clients may use to reach you. For example, if your program name is Legal Aid Society of Big State, you may own the URL www.legalaidbigstate.org. Consider the other URLs, such as: “legalaidofbigstate.org, LAOBS.org, and bigstatelegalaid.org”. Similarly, if your program has changed its name or merged to become a different program in the last 15 years, consider purchasing URLs of the older names and their variations. All of these URLs can point to your current site, but at least you will own it and can control where users will be trafficked. For all domains on the list, include variations that are misspelled. Lastly, for all domains in the list, purchase all like names with variations in the address i.e., .org, .com, .net. You may also include .us, which is gaining in use.

Identify and keep a list of URLs that are or should be property of your program. Include when purchased, who the registration company is, how much each costs, date of renewal, person responsible, administrative email and password to view account, back-up persons receiving notifications, and a copy of domain registry report (e.g., found at http://www.whois.net/) with a date that shows these domain names and ownership. (Who Is.Net allows you to input your domain names and view who owns it. We recommend that you print this annually or PDF to keep in a paper or electronic file for your records.

Monitor your online presence. Monitoring your online presence is a proactive – and consistent -- activity. There is more than one account of a program who actively monitored their presence, but in the span of a two month hiatus found a new threat had arisen in that short time. Assign the responsibility to a staff person and articulate the expectation on approach and frequency of monitoring. We recommend that at least once a month, monitoring approaches should include at a minimum the following practices:

If there are domains you do not own that are similar in nature, abbreviations of your name, or contain other addresses like .com or .net, type those addresses in. If any produce any website that is either posing as a legal aid program or offering other inappropriate content, complete a Who Is domain search and document the date of purchase, name and address of owner, and contact information.

Query at least Google (and ideally these search engines -- Yahoo, MSN, and AOL) for your organization’s name and variations of the name to ensure no one is using it improperly. For example, if your organization’s name is Legal Aid of Big State, search for “Legal Aid of Big State, Big State Legal Aid, Big State Legal Services, and Big State Free Legal Help.” Print or otherwise document the search results on the first page. Note the sponsored links and assess if any that are not your organization show up as your organization’s name. Consider expanding your search Web 2.0 applications like YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook. For any violators, click to their website to document their services and advertising market. Document their contact information and review their ownership information on Who Is.

Purposely misspell your website’s URL to check for “typo squatting” piracy. Make sure these misspelled URLs do not take users to an alternative website owned by a cyber squatter.

Set up an ongoing query mechanism for clients on your website. Include a survey or “Report Fraud” link on your website to allow users to note how they found your site and/or other similar sites they may have had problems with.

Protect Your Name Offline, Too.

Annually check your White and Yellow pages to assess what other organizations locally may be posing as a legal aid entity. Contact directory assistance every six months to ask for “Legal Aid” and your program name to see where you are routed. For any businesses found that are not your program, document contact number, owner, address, and date of business with the local business or commerce department.

Purchase Your Protection “Insurance” -- Register Your Trademarks

Registering a trademark can create a presumption that you are the owner of that mark and provide greater legal protection against unauthorized use. It is like an insurance policy. You pay for the mark, but if there is an action, your claim will be easier to pursue and you will have remedies available to you.

Trademark law governs the use of trademarks by individuals and legal entities to identify their goods or services and to distinguish those goods or services from those sold or provided by others. Your organization may be able to trademark its “service mark” (i.e., Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Illinois Legal Aid Online) to distinguish it from other organizations providing services. Common legal aid names may also be trademarked with limited protections.

The cost of trademark can be $325 - 375 per application. If you find a cyber squatter, a trademarked name will have more remedies available to protect the name and demand that the squatter cease and desist. In addition, monetary remedies may be available.

Utilize the pro bono assistance provided through the NTAP Cyber Piracy Project, funded by the Legal Services Corporation, to register your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. (More information about this program can be found in our LStech Resource Center Cyber Piracy Section.)

Know How to Take Action Again Fraudulent Practices

What are Your Legal Remedies? Organizations that face competitive businesses that are posing as their legal aid entity have several remedies available to them, including

(a) requesting voluntary transfer of the name or business entity,

(b) initiating a Uniform Dispute Resolution Proceeding with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN),

For more information on each of these, visit http://www.lsntap.org/CyberPiracy_Take_Action

What are Your State Bar Options? If the businesses are local and run by lawyers, state bar associations and compliance arms may be effective in pursuing alternate approaches to disbar or put the offending party on professional probation, in addition to paying remedies. Read Remedies for Action, which compiles information presented by Will Hornsby at the ABA to discover what ethical rules might apply to your situation.

Resources and Other Related Material

For more information, see http://www.lsntap.org/bookshelf?tid=123&name=Cyber%20Piracy.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines. Internet users conduct over 625 million searches every day on search engines such as Google, MSN, or Yahoo and a web site’s position in search results dramatically effects whether users find it.

To achieve a higher rank in the search results, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site.

For legal aid programs, using SEO to improve their web site’s page rank can be a significant tool in disarming cyber piracy efforts.

The following are concrete suggestions about how to optimize your own website. Experts suggest focusing on your home page and then branching out to apply the same principles to other pages on your site. These efforts should improve your page ranking, but your position in the search engine results will fluctuate and be influenced by several factors, including other websites competing for similar search terms.

Keywords

Knowing the search terms (or “keywords”) your potential visitors are searching for is crucial to attracting them to your site.

Try to come up with as many possible keywords as you can related to the services you offer. Include your organization's name and location in your keywords list. Be as specific as possible.
Check the popularity of your choices using an online keyword database. A very popular free database is Yahoo’s keyword tool http://inventory.overture.com.
Narrow down your list to a few keywords including your organization's name, location, and your main subject area.

Website Optimization

Website optimization is the process of modifying your website to include your selected keywords in the content and HTML code of the website.

Include a paragraph for each of your top keywords.
Make sure your keyword phrases for each page appear in the HTML title tag. Limit the title to about 70 characters and 2-3 keyword phrases.
Use one or more explanatory headings on each page. In HTML, these are indicated by the tags H1, H2, H3, etc. Include relevant keywords in heading tags for content sections.
Give specific, relevant filenames to all webpages, images, and navigation links.
Be sure that every single page on your website is linked from your navigation structure, so that no pages are “orphaned”.

Link Building

Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to yours, which generates direct traffic while increasing your search engine rankings.

Encourage inbound links from affiliates.
Write media (press) releases and submit them to distribution and syndication services.
Submit your website to web directories.
Continually search out and find new sources of links to your website.

Analytics

Website Analytics programs generate statistical reports that show how people find and use your website.

Tracking the “hits”, “visits”, “repeat visitors”, “page views”, “referrers”, and “keywords” to identify new search keywords and sources of web site traffic will enable you to continually improve SEO.

This material was compiled by Sujay Vennam from the following sources:

Grassroot.org's Introduction to SEO

9 Search Engine Ranking Essentials For Nonprofits

Wikipedia on Search Engine Optimization

Dave Chakrabarti on Nonprofit SEO

Registering Your Trademark - A Primer

by Milbank & Tweed and Dickstein and Shapiro, June 2007.

This primer (PDF) and accompanying questionnaire (PDF) have been provided to help legal aid organizations navigate the trademark process. They are a must-read for programs interested in receiving pro bono assistance from these law firms in trademark applications. See also Common Law Trademarks.

OVERVIEW

Trademark law governs the use of trademarks by individuals and legal entities to identify their goods or services and to distinguish those goods or services from those sold or provided by others.

What is a service mark?
A service mark is a type of trademark which uses words, phrases, symbols or designs to identify and distinguish the source of a service from those of other services.

For example, the service mark “Legal Aid Society of Sam and Jane County” would distinguish services provided by the legal aid society from others providing similar legal services.

What is trademark infringement?
A trademark is infringed when some entity other than the owner of the mark another uses the same or similar mark in a way that is likely to cause confusion as to the source or sponsorship of the goods or services involved.

For example, if another legal services provider used the mark of Legal Aid Society of Sam and Jane County to offer legal services at a cost, the use might be (probably is) an infringement.

TRADEMARK REGISTRATION

What is trademark registration?
Registration is the process of formally recording your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”).

Is registration of a trademark required?
No. Common law trademark rights are established when a mark is used in commerce to identify one’s goods or services. However, common law trademark protection is much more limited than the statutory protections afforded to registered trademarks.

Why should I register a trademark?
Registering a trademark on the Principal Register of the PTO provides the greatest protection for your trademark.

Registration on the Principal Register is available for trademarks that are distinctive.

Registration on the Principal Register provides several important benefits including:

The public, including other legal service providers, is deemed to have been notified of your ownership of the mark;
If another entity challenges your use of the trademark, you will be presumed to be the owner of the mark with sole rights to its use, and the challenger will have the burden of proving that you do not have the right to use the mark; and
If any other legal service organization is using (infringing) your trademark, you may bring a legal action in federal court to stop the infringement.

If a trademark is not eligible for registration on the Principal Register, for example, if it is not distinctive (e.g., it is descriptive), it may be registered on the Supplemental Register, which provides some but not all of the protections of marks registered on the Principal Register.

Once a mark becomes distinctive, it can be re-registered on the Principal Register.

When can I use the trademark symbols “SM” or ®?
Any time you claim rights to a mark, you may use the “SM” (service mark) designation to alert the public to your claim, regardless of whether you have filed an application with the PTO. You may use the federal registration symbol “®” only after the PTO registers your mark.

Before the trademark is registered by the PTO: Legal Aid Society of Sam and Jane County SM.

After the trademark has been registered by the PTO: Legal Aid Society of Sam and Jane County ®.

THE APPLICATION PROCESS

What does the trademark registration process involve?
To register a trademark, you must file an application for trademark registration with the PTO. The application may be filed electronically using the PTO Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS), available at http://www.uspto.gov/teas/index.html, or by paper application through the PTO.

Please Note: Paper applications are not processed as quickly as those submitted electronically and have a different fee schedule than electronic applications.

Do I have to have an attorney file the application?
You do not have to use an attorney to file a trademark application. Through an arrangement with SNAP, a group of law firms informally called the Pro Bono Consortium have agreed to provide advice and assistance to you in completing and filing a trademark application and responding to requests for additional information from the PTO. The services of the attorneys involved in the Pro Bono Consortium will be provided at no cost to you, however the application filing fees and post-registration maintenance fees and obligations described below will be your responsibility.

THE APPLICATION – WHAT YOU MUST INCLUDE

Name and type of entity of the Legal Aid Society
The application must be filed in the name of the Legal Aid Society, which is the owner of the mark.

Address for Correspondence
You must provide an address where the PTO can send communications concerning the application. If you use the services of our Pro Bono Consortium, communications relating to the application will be sent to your attorney during the application process.

Depiction of the Mark (The Drawing)
The “Mark” will consist of each Legal Aid Society’s name or logo.

A drawing may be filed as either

A standard character drawing in which all letters and words in the mark are depicted in Latin characters; all numerals in the mark are depicted in Roman or Arabic numerals; the mark includes only common punctuation marks; and the mark does not include a design element.

Note: A standard character drawing must include a statement that the mark presented in standard character format without claim to any particular font style, size or color.
A stylized or special form drawing which includes a design element or logo.

Note: Once the drawing is filed, A MATERIAL CHANGE TO THE MARK IS NOT ALLOWED.

Classification of Services
The Pro Bono Consortium has determined that the appropriate classification for the services you provide is “International Class 45: Legal Services,” which includes all legal services rendered by others to meet the needs of individuals, including attorney services.

Basis for Filing
Applications are based on the current use of the trademark in commerce, or the intent to use the trademark in commerce in the future. A “use in commerce” based application must include a sworn statement (declaration) that the trademark is in use in commerce, listing the date of the first use of the mark anywhere and the date of first use of the mark in commerce, and signed by the Executive Director (or other authorized person) on behalf of the Legal Aid Society.

Specimen
A specimen is an actual example of how the name of the Legal Aid Society is used in connection with the provision of free, civil legal services to low-income persons.

For example, you can submit promotional brochures, newspaper clippings, website screen shots, or fundraising materials displaying the name or logo of the Legal Aid Society and describing the legal services.

Application Filing Fee

In 2007, Application Filing Fees are $325 for TEAS Applications and $375 for Paper Applications.

Note: If the application meets the minimum filing requirements and is given a filing date, the application filing fee cannot be refunded.

Signature

Only persons properly authorized to sign on behalf of the Legal Aid Society - such as the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society - may sign the application.

REVIEW AND EXAMINATION BY THE PTO

Review of the Application
Once the PTO determines that the minimum filing requirements are met, your application is forwarded to an Examining Attorney who will determine if the application complies with all applicable rules and statutes and includes all required fees.

Note: This may take several months.

Results of the Examination
Deficient or Refused Applications
If the Examining Attorney determines that the application is deficient or the mark should not be registered, the Examining Attorney will issue an Office Action to you or, if you use the Pro Bono Consortium, to your attorney explaining the substantive reasons for refusal, and any technical or procedural deficiencies in the application.

If an Office Action is issued, your response is required within six months of the mailing date, or the application will be declared abandoned.

If your response to the Office Action does not overcome all objections, the Examining Attorney will issue a final refusal.
You may appeal a final refusal, for an additional fee, to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

If you use the Pro Bono Consortium, your attorney will prepare the response to the Office Action for you. The attorney may need additional materials from you. You should respond to any requests for additional materials promptly to avoid abandonment of your application.

Approved Applications
If the Examining Attorney raises no objections to registration, or the all objections raised in the Office Action are overcome, the mark will be approved for publication in the Official Gazette.

After publication, any party who believes that it may be damaged by registration of the mark has 30 days from the date of publication to file an opposition to registration or to request an extension of time to oppose.

If the mark is published based on use in commerce, and no opposition is filed, the mark will register and a registration certificate will be issued by the PTO about 3-4 months after the publication date.

MAINTAINING A FEDERAL TRADEMARK

Declaration of Use

Between the 5th and 6th years following registration you must file a Declaration of Use with the PTO

Cost: $100 (for each class of services)

Declaration of Incontestability

Any time after the 5th year following registration, you may file a Declaration of Incontestability; typically, this optional document is filed with the Declaration of Use.

Cost: $200 (for each class of services)

Renewal Application
Federal trademarks are issued for 10 years and may be renewed for additional 10-year periods. Renewal applications are filed between the 9th and 10th years following registration (or renewal).

Cost: $500 (for each class of services)

If you use the Pro Bono Consortium, your attorney will prepare a package for you when your mark is registered that will include your PTO registration certificate, as well as a schedule of when the Declaration of Use, Declaration of Incontestability and Renewal Application should be filed.

Please bear in mind, however, that these post-registration maintenance obligations are the obligations of the Legal Aid Society. The Pro Bono Consortium will not provide any services or assistance in connection with post-registration maintenance obligations and will not be responsible for reminding you of the filing dates.

More information is available from the Post Registration Division, (571) 272-9500.