Legal support of Internet projects. Goals and types of legal assistance in conducting digital business

Internet projects are any activity of a company on the global network carried out for profit. As a rule, IT projects are divided into several main areas, among which there are: 

• The business of finding a job or performers. 
• Sites with services. 
• Virtual platforms. 
• Online stores. 
• Portals for content search. 
• Online financial projects. 
• Online schools and universities. 

Today, most representatives of entrepreneurship, one way or another, have their own Internet project. This requires the development of a marketing strategy to present your business on the Internet among many other companies. 

Such an active Internet activity of business communities requires the development of draft laws and other regulatory legal acts in the field of Internet technologies. In addition, businessmen need full legal support for Internet projects, which includes consultations on the specifics of working on the Internet, as well as knowledge of judicial practice in the online industry. 

In this article, we will take a detailed look at the nuances of legal assistance for Internet entrepreneurs. 

The purpose of legal support of digital projects

Today, competition on the Internet is growing every month, and entrepreneurs are beginning to assess the risks of doing online business, trying to minimize them. It’s not so easy to do it yourself. Legal assistance aims to help a businessman with solving a number of problems, among which it is necessary to highlight:

• The importance of copyright protection on the Internet. Perhaps this is the main problem that occurs on the path of Internet entrepreneurs. The fact is that online business often involves the development of its own brand and unique product, which can be “borrowed” without the permission of the copyright holder. Regardless of how the attackers obtained the results of someone else’s intellectual property – with the help of a “virus”, copying and other things – such data cannot be legally used by a third party.  
• Protection of monetary investments in the Internet project. Today, any Internet activity involves initial and additional investments, as well as attracting third-party investments. However, entrepreneurs may incur losses due to the theft of content or the appearance of “mirror” resources created by attackers. In each of these cases, it is necessary to legally defend your right to remove illegal materials and receive compensation.  
• Legal consolidation of the rights of a businessman to intellectual property objects. An important point that will become an indisputable advantage of being right in court in case of problems described earlier. 
• Creation of a legal “roadmap” to improve legal security when working on the Internet. 
• Consulting services to minimize risks related to the distribution of intellectual property rights between founders or employees. 
• Development and preparation of individual documents for the legal portfolio of a specific Internet project, which includes employment contracts, contracts for the provision of services, supplies, as well as acts of acceptance of completed works and others. 
• Legal advice and representation of clients’ interests in court regarding the occurrence of conflict situations from competitors or consumers. 

Features of legal support for online projects

Despite the fact that legal support of Internet business for the most part pursues related goals with legal support of classical enterprises, such assistance still has its own characteristics. They can be divided into several main blocks of working with clients.  

1. Normalization of relations between the founders of the company. 

Any legal relationship between two or more business owners should be fixed at the legal level. This will minimize the risks of corporate and other conflicts between entrepreneurs. The traditional form of legal registration of the case is considered to be a limited liability company (LLC). However, business on the Internet often requires a different approach, which can be expressed in the form of a signed corporate agreement. This document may contain specific conditions and steps to resolve corporate conflicts, ways to exit the business and solve other problems. 

2. Creating conditions for attracting investments and developing a tax strategy. 

Choosing the appropriate tax regime is one of the important areas of legal support for Internet projects. A competent lawyer will help you find the grounds for the correct determination of the tax base and reasonable calculation of taxes. 

As for investments, attracting investors’ funds is one of the strategic issues of business existence. 

3. Proper legal registration of intellectual property objects. 

As a rule, lawyers face the largest amount of work within this block. The following legal activity is required here: 

• Registration of a trademark with the choice of a class of goods (services). 
• Registration of copyrights to intellectual property objects. 
• Registration of labor relations with employees of the company or sole proprietor, as well as the creation of conditions for working with contractors.
• Protection of commercial and other legally protected secrets. 
• Protection of property rights in relation to the Internet resource as a platform for posting various materials. This applies to the working staff, the developers themselves, and the technical support service. This will help protect the site from being “stolen” by scammers. 
• Search for an opportunity to use objects of someone else’s intellectual property on your resource legally.  

4. Solving financial and economic issues.  

The scope of legal work involves the competent drafting of the main contracts of the enterprise, which will be used for the sale of goods or services, their purchase, sale of licensed products, hiring and firing of personnel, work with contractors. It is also important to understand the terms of service of the current account from payment system operators or banking organizations. 

Legal support of online financial projects

Legal support of payment systems and other financial Internet projects requires a non-standard approach due to the peculiarities of legislation in the field of financial regulation. So, when working with non-bank credit companies that want to obtain the status of an operator for making money transactions, it is necessary first of all to conduct a legal audit of documents for compliance with federal laws and other regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation. When searching for inconsistencies, the client is always offered practical recommendations for their edits or additions. 

Legal support for online projects in various industries

The specific work plan is always determined individually, depending on the sphere in which the Internet enterprise operates. As a rule, if we are talking about an online store, it is important for lawyers to develop an offer agreement and a policy for returning and exchanging goods. Among other objects of work , one can distinguish: 

• The Personal Data processing Policy in accordance with 152-FZ and the privacy policy for customers. 
• Documents confirming the existence of an employment relationship with remote employees. 
• Solving customs issues when exporting or importing goods. 
• Brand protection on the Internet.
• Pre-trial settlement of disputes with consumers. 
• Strategy of protecting the company’s interests in court. 

What else does legal support of Internet projects include?

• Protection of the domain name – the address of the enterprise on the Internet. Domain blocking for various reasons “freezes” the company’s work indefinitely. That is why a lot of attention is paid to this problem.   
• Support of a domain purchase and sale transaction. Legal support in this matter guarantees the reduction of legal risks of blocking the domain or canceling it after the start of work. 
• Registration of trademarks – an individual set of images and design codes that distinguish a company from its competitors. A trademark unregistered according to all the rules will not be able to have legal protection in case of its theft. 
• Combating the illegal use of Internet content from the company’s resource. This applies to images, videos, text materials, and more. 
• Consulting services in the field of reducing the tax burden on the Internet enterprise. 

Is it worth contacting lawyers for help? 

Legal support of IT projects is an expense that will serve as an investment in the future profitability of the business. The damage caused by plagiarism of content or domain cancellation due to unfair actions of the provider is incommensurable from the costs of the lawyer’s work. Our experience shows that competitors and unscrupulous counterparties try to refrain from unscrupulous methods of influencing legally protected intellectual property, knowing about the risks of litigation. 

VALEN’s lawyers and accountants will help protect your business in the field of IT and other branches of Internet entrepreneurship. We are ready to provide comprehensive legal support for your business, as well as to solve a specific task related to trademark registration, challenging the work of a duplicate site or another problem.