Increasing Importance of Legal Aspects in the Current Communication Business Scenario

Internet has changed the way communication industry works। Today most businesses have a presence online. This has led to an increase in the importance of legal aspects in the current business scenario. Also, a lot of businesses have become global which makes it mandatory to have a common legal understanding.

A lot of companies are apprehensive of adopting ecommerce because of lack of legal knowledge as well as an increase in the cyber crime and cyber-hooliganism। Most of the time customers accept the terms and conditions on internet without reading it। These have legal implications. Customer as well as the company needs to understand when a contract is legal, whether the customer can be protected under the consumer protection act, what are the clauses for partnership, whether online auction is legal. Customers are in secured about providing personal data online. They need reassurance about data protection law. It is difficult to implement IPR’s (patent’s and copyrights) over the web.

There is growing need for legal protection for e-signatures and e-invoices. We can also see a need for legal support incase of cultural perceptions since today communication industry has globalized.

We have seen that in TV commercials, press, newspapers, television and other media’s that people try to defame competitors; this again has seen a rise in the 21st century. A good knowledge of law of defamation becomes essential.

India has very good creative talent which has led to initiatives like creative for advertisements being outsourced from across the globe to India; this again includes a number of legal formalities that both the parties involved should be aware and practice.

These days we see an increase in VC and Angel funding which involves parting with equity, this again leads to issues if not protected legally in the beginning itself.

There is a growing trend in marketing communications to involve customers in the brand building; this may involve contest, sweepstakes and frills. There are certain legal parameters that have to be met while implementing these; therefore it is mandatory for companies to be legally sound.

Businesses today have to ensure safety and health of their employees more than ever. Most of the businesses today use software’s in one or the other operations. Licensing is yet another legal issue to be met by companies.

Due to globalization businesses have to follow code and conduct of the other countries in order to meet the legal obligations of the trade. This requires generally hiring some legal consultant from that country or studying the legal formalities of the country involved.

With all the above examples and applications that we have seen, we can for sure conclude that increasing importance of legal aspects in today’s business scenarios. Negligence of legal aspects in business scenario can lead to either heavy compensation and damages or misuse of trademarks, logo’s, patents and other intellectual property.