Starting a business brings with it legal and financial challenges. These are ramifications worth considering as you plan out your startup’s policies and practices. But, fortunately, you can better protect your business and employees with a comprehensive approach to legal safety.
From trademarks to accessibility, there’s a lot to consider as you navigate servicing the public with a new product or service. Align your business model with legal best practices to avoid costly liabilities. These are the legal ramifications to keep in mind as you plan your startup’s policies around long-term success.
Legal Ramifications to Consider
When it comes to legal considerations, the more preparation you have the better. This means liability insurance, effective trademark filings, cybersecurity protections, and more. That’s because, in the course of keeping your business safe, there are risks to address at every angle.
Ignoring legal issues can end up ruining your business. Instead, you need to build protections that cover each category of risk. Even the best intentions can sometimes lead to liability, so educating yourself and preparing for the worst is essential for adequate protection.
Start by learning the legal issues many startups face. For instance, these challenges can arise even when picking a name. Since names are an integral part of branding, registering a business title has to go through the United States Patent and Trademark office. Even then, other businesses may legally dispute your claim to the name, as Chicago-based tech company Meta had to do when Facebook decided to take the moniker.
As you consider the legal ramifications of your own decisions and policies, keep these common challenges in mind:
1. Trademarking and intellectual property
Trademarking and patenting are vital parts of business policy. Without a strong understanding of what a trademark is and how to register one, you’ll likely find yourself in hot water when competitors decide to take your ideas. To protect your intellectual property, follow proper trademark filing procedures and be sure to maintain the status of your trademarks. Many business owners forget that these have to be renewed.
2. Safety hazards
Additionally, there are a host of safety and personnel hazards you’ll need to mitigate through policy. The legal hurdles that come from safety hazards are one of the biggest reasons that startups fail. To prevent these hazards, you’ll need to develop strict safety compliance standards and consider adopting smarter safety technology. These days, sensors and monitors on the Internet of Things (IoT) make it easier for safety managers to identify and reduce workplace risk.
3. Discrimination
Then, ensure that anti-discrimination is a core principle of all your workplace policies. This means building empathy into your company values and supporting workers by maintaining an inclusive working environment. Make sure your policies do not discriminate against workers by training your workforce on anti-harassment and cultural sensitivity. A thorough approach ensures a workplace is free from discrimination by sex, age, race, ethnicity, ability, gender identity, sexual orientation, or creed.
4. Cybersecurity threats
Once you can be sure your policies support workers’ rights, you need to protect their — and your customers’ — data. This means cybersecurity. In today’s pandemic economy, we have more workers logging in from home than ever before. Naturally, the increased diversity in access points represents a vulnerability. Create a bring your own device policy that considers the cybersecurity risks at every step. This can include policies like:
- Using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
- Managing endpoint app usage
- Deploying a centralized anti-malware system
5. Accessibility
While your systems have to be safe, they still have to be accessible. By building products and services for all kinds of users, you mitigate the risk of a lawsuit while expanding your audience. Every business should desire these dual benefits. Accessible policies are simply good business, and they are quickly becoming an enforced standard.
For instance, Domino’s Pizza had to pay a customer $4,000 after a lost accessibility lawsuit involving their online ordering tool, not to mention the legal costs. To avoid legal ramifications like these that can hamper your startup, embrace accessible policies like following Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.
Protecting Your Startup With Good Policy
Fortunately for startups, the many legal ramifications that can impact your business operations can be mostly avoided through good policy. Start by doing your research on trademarks and patents, implementing a plan for maintaining your intellectual property. From here, practice policies that foster an inclusive, safe workplace.
Protecting your startup starts with considering legal hurdles. Make note of these now as you plan a better business model.
