We're back with another Big I Buzz, kicking off the month of June. As we start a new month, we want to remind everyone about our monthly newsletters. Our monthly newsletters target four interest areas: personal lines, commercial lines, employee benefits and industry relations & operations. If you're not already receiving one of these targeted newsletters, make sure you sign up! You don't want to miss the industry news important to you and your role, PLUS in addition to news, we're also sharing targeted member benefits that you might not know you can take advantage of and education opportunities that fit your role. Visit bit.ly/industrynewsforyou to make sure you're on the list for one (or more) of our targeted newsletters. 

Intro To Trusted Choice Webinar

Speaking of member benefits that you might not know you can take advantage of, don't forget about Trusted Choice! Trusted Choice offers FREE programs and resources, including marketing reimbursement opportunities! Want to learn more about all that Trusted Choice has to offer? Tune into the "Intro to Trusted Choice Webinar" happening at 1 p.m. CST on Tuesday, June 14th. Register now here. 

Properly Insuring Against Copyright and Intellectual Property Risk

Does your company have a website, post on social media or run a blog? If so, you could be exposing yourself to intellectual property risks. According to NU Property Casualty 360, here are five common activities that can expose companies to intellectual property risks: 

1. Publication of photos and video clips on websites and social media. 

When you share photos or video clips, whether that be on social media or in other content you create, you could be subject to liability for copyright infringement if you don't have permission to do so from the copyright owner. It doesn't matter what size your following is on social media, or if you don't think that they'll ever see your website. There is an industry of plaintiff attorneys who represent photographers and their licensing agents that are using software to search for specific photos. If you use images without permission and without the copyright identifying information, these lawyers could contact you and demand a settlement amount for much higher than their usual regular license fee. 

2. Use of third-party music in social media posts

Have you tried to post a video to Facebook in the last few years with sound and it gets taken down because you "don't have the rights to the music"? This can be frustrating, but they're actually doing you a favor by taking the video down. According to NU Property Casualty 360, "When a company posts a video on its website or social media posts, such as TikTok or Instagram Reels, that is synced to music owned by a third party, copyright exposures arises for the use of that music if it was not properly licensed. The risk also applies if music plays incidentally in the background. For instance, a local bar and restaurant posts a video interviewing employees and patrons while a song happens to be playing on the sound system in the background. Even though the bar may have a "blanket license" with ASCAP or BMI that permits the bar's public performance of the song, that license does not include the synchronization rights needed to sync the song to video." 

An option around this is to setup your TikTok and Instagram accounts as "Business" accounts. This will give you access to a library of music that has been authorized for commercial use (only on those platforms). These platforms can eventually remove the sound from their "business" library if they decide to change their usage to personal use only, but when that happens, the sound will be removed from your video. 

If you're not using business accounts for your social media sites, and when you're creating video content for your website and elsewhere, make sure you purchase the commercial use license when selecting music for videos. There are a few websites where you can access free commercial use music, we have those listed in the IIAW's Digital Marketing Playbook. IIAW members access the playbook here. 

3. Promotional materials and advertising could violate trademark and trade dress rights. "When a company disseminates content that promotes its products or services, if it uses a word, phrase, slogan or label that is confusingly similar to the intellectual property owned by someone else, the company could be exposed to trademark or trade dress infringement claim." A good rule of thumb when deciding whether you should use a word, phrase, slogan, or label is: if the wording reminds you of something else (another company or product), you shouldn't use it. 

4. Misappropriation of name or likeness. Similar to using wording similar to intellectual property owned by someone else, "promotional materials and advertising can also subject a company to claims for misappropriation of name or likeness, otherwise known as a violation of the right of publicity. While some company employees might think it is useful, fun or effective to reference and/or post photos of celebrities, politicians or sports figures in their promotional materials or advertising, this creative use could give rise to significant liability exposure." 

5. Misappropriation of ideas, plagiarism and trade secrets. NU Property Casualty 360 reports, "The work of any company is the sum of the input and creative effort of its employees, independent contractors and other associated staff or vendors. While any creative contribution by an employee is usually owned by the company as "work made for hire" under the Copyright Act, other types of relationships between the company and its workers, and other associated individuals or entities, are subject to varying contractual terms. Sometimes disputes erupt over the ownership of the intellectual property rights that accompany such creative contributions.... A worker who authored written material and pitched a concept to a company could bring a claim of idea misappropriation if the worker believes the company took the written material or developed the concept without appropriately compensating the worker."

Read more about these exposures and how to mitigate the risks here. 

For more news, check out the Action News section of our weekly e-newsletter, Big I Buzz. If you aren’t subscribed, click here to add your email to our emailing list.