Firms 'need to protect online intellectual property'

Domain names are among the online intellectual property that businesses must consider when protecting their assets.

This is according to chef Nick Nairn, who told the Herald that many people are unappreciative of what makes up their intellectual assets. Mr Nairn is speaking at the Intellectual Assets Congress in Glasgow this week.

Along with the biggest assets such as logos, trade names and domain names, businesses need to consider other elements such as their visual branding and colour schemes, terms and conditions and advertising methods, he commented.

"If you do not protect [your online assets], someone can come in and copy it. There is a fair bit of passing off where people take an idea and use it for themselves," Mr Nairn went on to warn.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers introduced its uniform domain name dispute resolution policy in 1999 to deal with cases of domain name cybersquatting.