If your company has its own website and you wish to link another website, you should think about whether this may infringe the copyright of the other website. Generally, if you link a webpage, you do not need to obtain consent from the webpage’s copyright owner. This is because a link only contains the webpage’s web address, which is not protected by copyright.
However, while linking a webpage may not amount to copyright infringement, the webpage’s owner may object to it on other legal grounds, such as:
- The linking defames the owner of the webpage; or
- The linking misleads the public into thinking that you and the webpage’s owner have a trade connection.
If the owner of the webpage objects to your linking on any legal ground and successfully brings a civil action against you in the local courts, you may be liable to pay them compensation and may be ordered by the court to remove the linking from your company’s website.
Website Linking Licence Agreement
Hence, to avoid being sued, you may wish to contact the owner of the other website and enter into a Website Linking Licence Agreement with them. By signing a contract with the other company, it provides you with the proof that the other party intends to enter into the contract with your company and be bound by the contract’s obligations.
A Website Linking Licence Agreement will ensure that your company’s website can link to another party’s website. For instance, the agreement may include a clause stating that your company acknowledges that the other party has all proprietary or licensing rights of all text, images, media, content, software and any other materials on the other party’s website, which are protected under Hong Kong’s copyright and other intellectual property laws and regulations.
Moreover, the agreement can also limit your company’s use of the other party’s website as well as protect the moral rights of the owner of the other company’s website. For example, there may be a clause within the agreement that prohibits your company from reproducing the other party’s website or any part of its content, and/or another clause that prohibits your company from presenting false information about the other party and misrepresenting the relationship between your company and the other party.
Key takeaways
- If your company has its own website and you wish to link another website, you should think about whether this may infringe the copyright of the other website.
- Generally, if you link a webpage, you do not need to obtain consent from the webpage’s copyright owner.
- However, the webpage’s owner may object to the linking on other legal grounds.
- To avoid being sued, you can contact the owner of the other website and enter into a Website Linking Licence Agreement with them.